The Burned Ones
by Erwin Rommel98
Summary: A German tank crew gets sent to Zootopia by one of the creators of the Earth. The reason: to retrieve something very dangerous in the wrong hands that was stolen from Earth by another god, and to bring it back. But they make a dramatic entrance, and our two favorite characters get put on the case.
1. Prologue

**Here is the second chapter! Well, really the prologue. Anyway, I hope you enjoy and when you are done reading, please do not fail to read my notes at the end, as I have something I would like you to read.**

 **Prologue**

It was raining. Pouring, punctuated every now and again by a streak of illuminating lightning, followed by deafening thunder. Hauptsturmfuhrer Heinrich Fuchs had been sitting in his parked Mercedes-Benz 170 S, staring out the window and looking down the almost deserted street for the better part of 45 minutes. He let his mind drift to recent past events. Specifically, those that had lead him to be sitting next to a watery-eyed, bespectacled Dr. Wilhelm Munch on a mostly deserted street in Krakow, Poland on a storming July night.

Technically, it had started back before the war. You could say it was part of the reason the war was started in the first place, but only he and a select few knew that. His thoughts were interrupted by a wheezing sound coming from the doctor. He glanced over at him, the doctor was holding a handkerchief to his nose, wiping away phlegm. He then used the same handkerchief to wipe his sweaty forehead. He put the cloth away and pulled out another one he used to clean his glasses.

" _Disgusting,"_ thought Fuchs. _"I'll be glad when this is over, and I can get rid of him."_

Fuchs did not like the watery-eyed doctor of archeology. He was almost always complaining about something, and his eyes were always leaking tears. The only thing that he had going for him was that he really knew his stuff. He had spent the last two years finishing the research that Fuchs had started, trying to unlock the riddle that time had created, hiding the location of the gem. Then one day in August of 1939 Munch figured it out. The clues had eventually led him, mentally that is, to Krakow, which was the old capital of Poland. Problem was, there was no way to get the stone, at least not legally. It was in another country, in one of its biggest cities, and hidden deep in one of its most iconic landmarks. It ended up not mattering. The still rather new dictator of Germany was itching to start a war for his own reasons. Munch and Fuchs were able to get an audience with him and was able to convince him to start his war by attacking Poland. And now here they were.

Behind them sat the dark outline of an Opal blitz truck. Inside the covered bed sat 12 battle ready SS storm troopers waiting on him to give the signal to move out. The place they had parked wasn't picked at random. They were one block away from the Wawel Cathedral, and the castle of the same name that protected it. There was no real reason they were waiting, Fuchs was just hoping the rain would let up. Fuchs wasn't too big a fan of the rain.

Yet, Fuchs knew that it was dangerous to wait. There were Polish resistance fighters all over the place. If Fuchs and the truck sat for too long they would notice, trouble might start. That was not something he wanted to happen, but that's why he brought the troopers. So, when the rain did not let up after a few more minutes, Fuchs decided it was time to go.

Fuchs sighed and motioned for his driver to put the car in gear and finish the drive down the last block to their destination. The truck behind them rumbled to life when its driver saw the brake lights of the Mercedes come on. Slowly, they pulled away from the curb and drove the short remaining distance to the cathedral. They parked on the side of the road at the base of the hill on the north side of the complex near the Herbowa Gate, the castle entrance closest to the church. They would have to walk the rest of the way.

The cathedral as well as the castle and its walls could date its oldest sections to over 1,000 years ago. It had been the site of the coronation of Wladyslaw the Elbow-High, the first king to rule the united Polish lands. From then on it had been used by all but two of Poland's kings. Inside are the sarcophaguses of ten Polish kings, as well as war heroes and Poland's patron saint, St Stanislaus. It was one of these sarcophagi, that of Wladyslaw the Elbow-High himself, that so interested Fuchs. Or rather, it was what was in the sarcophagus that interested him.

Fuchs was a lover of history, specifically Medieval history. Even more specifically, the history of the Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, also known as the Teutonic Knights. After all, he could trace his lineage back to one of the founding members of the order.

A few years back, when he had still been an Obersturmführer, Fuchs had been reading a book about the Battle of Płowce. This was the battle that had halted the expansion of the knight's realm. It had been fought on the 21 of September 1331 between 7,000 Teutonic Knights and 5,000 Polish troops led by Wladyslaw the Elbow-High, the very man whose tomb now held his undivided attention. It should have been an easy win for the extremely well trained and heavily armed and armored Knights, yet, they had lost. The Knights suffered the capture of Reuss von Plauen, the commander of their army, along with 40 of their best knights and the death of more than half their army.

This got Fuchs thinking. How had the commander of the Teutonic army, and 40 of his best soldiers, been captured? Better yet, how had the knights lost? Fuchs had to investigate. After a lot of digging around in musty libraries, his research led him to Hildesheim Cathedral. What Fuchs found among the dry, crumbly parchments and old leathery tomes of the cathedral's library would change his life forever. He had found numerous hints, all pointing to what he eventually found, but he had always been skeptical. Now he was sure. He had found proof. Hidden in a small wooden box on a shelf in the very back of the room was a three-inch-long piece of a golden scepter handle, about two inches in diameter and broken at one end. Small diamonds and emeralds were set in two small circles spaced one inch apart. The rest of the handle would have had the same pattern all the way to the top. So it was real. This was why the knights had lost that day. Why von Plauen and 40 of his best warriors had given up. Wladyslaw had been in possession of Saint Stanislaus' gem.

The legend of the gem had been all but forgotten by the time Fuchs learned of it. The Polish legend said that a green gem about the size of a crows egg had been gifted to the Bishop of Krakow, Bishop Stanislaus, supposedly by the Virgin Mary herself. It was said to be set in a small gold scepter, with three rubies surrounding the gem, one on top and one on either side and rings of small diamonds and emeralds spaced evenly up the handle. Mary had given it to him so that he would be able to resurrect Piotr, the dead owner of a certain parcel of land whose three sons were disputing Stanislaus' claim that he had bought the land for the church. However, the king, King Boleslaw II, was backing the claims of Piotr's three sons that Stanislaus had not bought the land. Stanislaus asked the king if he could have three days to find a witness that validated his claim. The king laughingly agreed.

Stanislaus then went away, and for two days straight prayed unceasingly. Midway through this marathon of prayer is when it is said he was visited by Mary and received the gem. On the morning of the third day, he got up, and dressed in his full bishop's regalia, went out to the cemetery where Piotr was buried. Upon arriving he had Piotr's grave dug up. By the time Piotr was on the surface, a small crowd had gathered. For Stanislaus, this was a good thing, for it meant there were more witnesses to what he was about to do. Holding the small scepter out over Piotr's body he bade Piotr to rise. Immediately a green light burst from the gem, flowing into Piotr's rotting corpse. The corpse began to heal, and then it began to move. Piotr slowly sat up and opened his eyes. He was back in the land of the living. Piotr then went with Stanislaus and told the king and his three sons that Stanislaus had indeed paid him for the land, and that it was rightfully his. The king was forced to then side with Stanislaus. Stanislaus then gave Piotr the choice to stay with the living, but Piotr refused. So, they went back to the cemetery they dug him out of and returned him to the ground.

Upon the completion of what he had set out to do, Stanislaus hid the scepter with its gem; which, after his untimely death disappeared into Polish myth. Until about 300 years later, whenWladyslaww the Elbow-High, somehow got his hands on it and used it to help him in his quest to unite all the Polish kingdoms under one king. Wladyslaw was very careful in his use of the gem. So careful in fact, that none of his enemies found out about it until his last battle with the Teutonic knights.

After his discovery at Hildesheim Cathedral, Fuchs had sought out Germany's most celebrated professor of archeology, Professor Munch. Munch was nothing like what Fuchs was expecting. Fuchs was expecting a tall, well dressed, almost aristocratic man. Instead he got pretty much the exact opposite. If only he had looked up a picture of him first, maybe he wouldn't have been quite so disgusted when he met him. Either way, Munch had surprisingly been a great help. Fuchs had figured out the gem was in Poland but where, well, he couldn't say. Fuchs had decided to let Munch do the rest of the hard work, digging through yet more manuscripts and old forgotten parchments. Until one day Munch had burst into Fuchs's office, blabbering about finding something.

"Sir, sir!" he had excitedly exclaimed, his eyes watering behind his glasses more than usual. "I found it! I found it!"

"Calm down man!" Fuchs had said. He didn't want Munch to drip tears everywhere. "Quiet down, then tell me where you have found it."

Munch calmed down a bit, he then proceeded to tell Fuchs everything.

Fuchs pulled his heavy leather coat tightly around him and glanced at his watch. It was nearly one in the morning. Fuchs hoped the lateness of the expedition would mean that no one would be around, but you could never be too careful in a place like Krakow in a war-torn country like Poland. He stepped out into the pouring rain, Munch scrambling out on the other side. A great bolt of lightning flashed, illuminating the slick grassy slope he was going to have to climb. Fuchs motioned to the driver to stay and keep the car running. Behind him he heard the soldiers dropping from the truck to the ground and spreading out, taking up defensive positions around them, ready for anything that might show up out of the darkness.

Fuchs started up the hill, closely followed by a wheezing Munch. Once at the top, Fuchs found the gate was closed, the portcullis having been dropped into place. This was not something he had planned for. Thankfully it was only held in place by gravity. Fuchs got 10 of the SS troops to lift the gate by shear strength while the other two stood guard. Eventuall,y all 14 of them got through.

By this time Fuchs was soaked, despite his leather coat, and Munch's nose was running more than ever. The dark, imposing mass of the cathedral loomed up out of the dark. Fuchs was getting excited now. So far, it had all gone to plan. No attacks by resistance fighters, no bad luck. Other than the rain of course.

The outer wall of the cathedral was part a longer group of buildings that formed another inner wall of sorts. Between the cathedral's outer wall and the beginning of the walls of the next buildings was another gate. However, this one had large wooden doors instead of a portcullis. Thankfully though, these doors had been left open.

Between the gate and the giant black metal doors of the cathedral's western entrance was a wide path, flanked on one side by the cathedral and on the other by a group of three story buildings. The path opened into a large courtyard in the middle of the entire complex. The path was a perfect place for an ambush. The doors were recessed in a small alleyway created by two flanking wings of the cathedral. The whole cathedral was surrounded by yet another small wall, punctuated by two small gates. There was one such gate directly in front of the alley to the doors. The dash to the gate was uneventful. The gate wasn't much, just a fancy wrought iron gate, held in the closed position by a chain with a padlock. Fuchs had come prepared for this. He had keys for both the gate and the cathedral doors. The doors were big enough that they had a smaller door built into one of them for normal usage.

The group paused at the iron gate. Fuchs's fingers were getting cold, and it took him longer than it normally would have to get the right key and insert it into the lock. The lock was well oiled, and quietly clicked open. Fuchs let the chain hang down from the gate, he would secure it again when they left. Lighting flickered, revealing the forbidding black doors for a spilt second.

Ten of the soldiers, Fuchs, and Munch had safely gotten through the gate and were crossing the small courtyard when six shots rang out. Fuchs heard the two soldiers who were covering their entrance through the gate grunt, then the clatter of their weapons and the thuds of their bodies as they hit the ground. The other troopers immediately returned fire and were rewarded with a scream as some of their bullets found a target.

" _So, they have been watching us,"_ thought Fuchs.

He yelled at the last soldier through the gate to re-secure the chain and lock it, before running the last few meters to the cathedral doors. The key hole was hidden in the dark, so Fuchs pulled out a flashlight and gave it to Munch to train on the door. While Fuchs and Munch were working on the door, the SS troops had set up a defensive perimeter around the door. Six formed a semi-circle, blocking off the alley. The other four took up positions at the gate.

The resistance fighters had taken up positions in the building across the way. Some were up in the third floor, able to fire down on the Germans. There were a few on the ground floor, but the only suitable places to fire from on that floor was the door and a small window set high of the ground. However, the storm troopers forced anyone who wanted to shoot at them too keep their heads down long enough that Fuchs was able to get the door open. Munch immediately dropped the flashlight and dashed inside. Fuchs cursed at the man before picking up the light. He decided he was going to wait on his soldiers.

One of the enemy caught on to what was happening fast enough to be able to fire off a few shots at Fuchs's men just as the last of them were going through the door. One of the bullets found its mark, burying itself in the lower leg of one of the storm troopers. The trooper grunted and fell to the ground, then pulled himself up and used his rifle as a crutch to hobble the rest of the way inside. Fuchs had the door quickly closed and locked. Fuchs sent a couple of the soldiers to find something to use to block the doors. Finally, he was inside. So very close to his destination. Saint Stanislaus' sarcophagus was right smack in the middle of the massive nave.

The first thing that stood out about Stanislaus' coffin was its color. It was entirely silver. The coffin itself was raised about two feet off the ground. It was supported by four silver angels, one at each corner, sculpted to look like they were bearing the coffin on their shoulders. The coffin had 12 cherub motifs carved into it. They were evenly spaced along the side, their wings touching at the tips, forming a continuous row of wings along both sides. However, there were no cherubs on the ends. In between the cherubs were depicted 12 scenes from the saint's life and supposed posthumous miracles. The lid was large and also made of silver.

Fuchs couldn't wait to get the lid off.

"You!" he said pointing to the nearest soldier, "Get three others and come with me, everyone else get ready to repel anyone who tries to get in."

The soldier he had pointed to nodded and rounded up the three strongest of the group. The others helped the wounded soldier to a safe spot off to one side and set him up in a position that was easily defendable. Then they took up positions behind the large stone columns that supported the roof.

The lid of the coffin was very heavy and awkward. There was only a thin crack between the bottom of the lid and the top of the coffin. The first time the soldiers touched it, a mighty thunderclap sounded. Fuchs just dismissed it as a coincidence, but he could tell that some of the more superstitious of the soldiers thought it as an omen. It took five minutes for the soldiers just to move it enough to where they could all get a grip, one on each corner. The soldiers heaved, lifting the lid a good six inches off the top.

"Careful with that," said Munch. Fuchs glared at him.

"Set it over there." Fuchs said.

Just as they were about to lower the lid to the ground, a loud booming sound came from the door they had come through. Fuchs looked up startled. One of the doors was partly off its hinges and jutting into the room. Wisps of smoke slowly drifted in. The four soldiers carrying the lid immediately dropped it and ran for their weapons, which were stacked on a pew about six feet away. Fuchs heard someone yell from the other side of the door, and a small round object rolled in through the opening. Fuchs was about to dive for cover when the grenade started spewing smoke. Munch about lost his mind and fell to his knees in a blubbering state of shock.

Fuchs realized he only had a short time to act. He ran up to the coffin and looked inside just as the storm troopers opened fire. Inside was another coffin made of wood. It was obviously old, and it took no effort at all to rip off the lid and throw it aside. Inside lay a skull with a withered scalp and wisps of brown hair attached to a skeleton wearing robes of red with gold trim. Clasped in the long bony fingers was a small brown box.

The smoke had grown thicker and was working its way to Fuchs. It appeared that another smoke bomb had been thrown in. Fuchs could hear the storm troopers coughing and moving farther back into the interior of the cavernous room, trying to get their gas masks out of their canisters and on to their faces. A burst of gunfire erupted from the direction of the now completely hidden doors, just missing one of the troopers who turned around and let loose with his MP40, eliciting a grunt from the smoke. Immediately, another burst of fire came from the door and the trooper was felled without making a sound.

Without wasting anymore time, Fuchs reached in to the wooden coffin and grabbed the box. It crumbled in his hands, revealing a brown cloth wrapped brown cloth wrapped round object. Fuchs paused. The little object was not the right shape. He picked up the cloth and quickly unwrapped it. Inside was a pear-shaped gem, hazy and pale green. Fuchs realized what had happened. Apparently, sometime during its 1,000-year history the scepter that held the gem had been lost. This explained the piece he had found in Hildesheim. Even though he knew he was pressed for time, Fuchs couldn't help but stare at the gem. It was beautiful and seamed to almost speak to him. Fuchs felt himself start to slip from reality, the gem seemingly calling him into some unknown realm.

Fuchs forced his gaze away from it. He looked up just as the smoke enveloped him, the sounds of a desperate gunfight raged all around him. Without thinking, Fuchs stuffed the gem in one of his tunic pockets, buttoned it back up, and ran toward the back of the long sanctuary. Munch stayed where he was, either dead from a heart attack or too scared to move. Fuchs didn't care either way.

Halfway to the cathedral's rear (east) entrance Fuchs remembered that this opened into a very small courtyard that lead directly to the palace entrance. This was not where he wanted to go, as it would take him much too long to get out, and for all he knew there could be people waiting inside. The way Fuchs wanted to go was out through the cathedral's south entrance. This was directly across from Stanislaus's tomb. Fuchs hesitated only a moment before turning around and running back towards the sounds of the continuing, albeit now less vigorous, gunfight and the slowly dissipating smoke. Once at the coffin he turned left and sprinted for the door. Gunfire erupted behind him and he saw chips of stone fly off the wall only feet from him.

The return fire from his troopers was becoming less frequent. Somehow, they were losing the fight, but Fuchs didn't have time to ponder why. Upon reaching the massive metal doors, Fuchs pulled out the key and hastily unlocked the smaller inset door. He pushed it open and ran out into the freezing rain. Lighting was flashing all around him, and the thunder was deafening. Fuchs didn't stop. The south entrance opened into the same courtyard as the west entrance. About four meters away was another wrought iron gate with a chain and padlock. This gate opened into yet another courtyard, this one much larger. Fuchs ran to the gate, fumbling with the keys, desperately trying to find the one for the padlock.

Suddenly a massive lightning bolt hit about 15 meters away, throwing him to the ground and leaving a huge scorch mark where it hit. Fuchs got up and started on the keys again. This time he found the right one and quickly unlocked the gate, yanking the chain off. Without thinking he started running diagonally across the yard, determined to reach the far away exit on the other side. He had barely made it 30 meters when another bolt of lightning hit the ground, closer this time. Fuchs went flying, landing on his back. He lay stunned.

Through his hazy vision, Fuchs could make out the figures of armed men coming through the south gate. Fuchs dug deep into his energy reserves, and with a mighty effort got up and started running again. He had just made it past two large trees, just over a little past halfway, when the world exploded, and everything disappeared in a swirl of blackness.

* * *

The headache was immense. Fuchs groaned and tried to sit up and open his eyes, but the combination of movement and bright white light caused the pain in his head to explode, forcing him to lay back down. After what seemed like hours lying on the very hard ground, Fuchs's eyes had adjusted enough to the light on the other side of his eyelids that he was able to open them. He sat up and looked around. There was nothing. Absolutely nothing. He was still in his uniform though, and he could feel the small lump that was the gem in his tunic pocket. His hat was laying on the ground beside him. However, something was a little off. His whole body felt numb, even though it looked fine. He could also still move both arms and legs, so he didn't think much of it.

Fuchs looked around at his surroundings. He was sitting on a large white plane with a huge pale-yellow ball of light hovering high in the sky above him. Fuchs made the mistake of looking straight at the light. He fainted again.

* * *

The air smelled damp and musty. Almost like a cave. The ground beneath Fuchs's back was damp and ridged, like he was laying on a bed of evenly spaced logs. The holster on his hip had slid around behind him and was digging into his back. Fuchs slowly opened his eyes, carefully, not wanting a repeat of last time. He needn't have worried. It was pitch black. He tugged the holster back to its rightful position, then rubbed his aching face. It felt as if there were small hard ridges running downing his face, originating in his scalp. He could feel that the ridges ran all the way down his body on both sides, snaking around like the little ridges mole tunneling leaves on the grounds surface. In other words, they had no discernable pattern, at least not the he could tell from feel. They just meandered around like a river. All the cartilage on his face was gone or withered, leaving him with a hole for a nose and small nubs where his ears were. Interestingly though he still had hair. His hat was yet again laying beside him. He dusted it off and put it on. His eyes felt funny. It felt like there were cotton balls packed inside. He couldn't tell if this was affecting his vision, though, because of how dark it was. He felt his pocket, reassuring himself that the gem was still there.

He stood up, careful not to fall on the uneven ground. Two steps later his left foot slammed into something low to the ground and hard as a rock, sending him sprawling. Thankfully, there was a wall only a meter away that arrested his fall. Fuchs could tell by feel that the wall was made of bricks, and old ones at that. They were slimy from the buildup of decades of fungal and mineral buildup. Fuchs was extremely confused, but he was still alive and not in any immediate danger, and to him that was all that mattered. He would worry about getting back to his quarters later. First, he had to get out of this infernal darkness. He cursed, then crouched down and gingerly worked his way back to the obstruction on the ground.

Before he had a chance to examine it more carefully, the air in front of him burst into stars, a migraine suddenly rearing its ugly head. Fuchs fell to the ground again, moaning with pain. He closed his eyes. Slowly the stars went away, the pain and the cotton feeling in his eyes along with them.

Fuchs quickly opened his eyes again and almost shut them just as fast. Everything was a shade of green. It was as if he was wearing a pair of those newfangled night vision goggles that he had the privilege to try out at a lab back in Berlin. He saw the thing he had tripped on. It was clearly a railroad track. On the other side of it were two more tracks right next to each other. This was a clear sign of a subway. The tracks also explained his discomfort when he had woken up. It appeared however, that this line had not been used in a long time. The rust-covered tracks were a testament to how long this line had sat, unused and derelict. The ceiling and walls were streaked with water, the dripping of It onto the ground sounding oddly magnified by the curved brick walls.

Fuchs sat down and looked around, even more bewildered now then he was when he first woke up. For one, how was he seeing anything at all? Even if he had on a pair of the NVGs, there was no ambient light source for them to amplify, much less for his eyes to see with. Or at least, there was none that he could detect. But for now, he decided it wasn't worth devoting any energy towards. For seconds, what was he doing here? Here being a brick tunnel about two and a half meters wide and ending in an arch about three meters above his head. It stretched on in a straight line out of his sight in both directions. The only other feature in the tunnel beside the tracks was a light set on the other side of the tracks, encased in an extremely rusty cage. Fuchs stared at it. It was obvious the bulb hadn't been changed in a very long time, yet somehow it was able to still emit a soft glow. Fuchs realized that this light was the source of ambient light. Looking closer, Fuchs was able to determine that these lights were spaced every 50 meters or so for as far as he could see.

" _That's weird,"_ he thought. _"The power to the rails is cut, but not the power to the lights?"_

Fuchs didn't want to tarry, yet he had no idea where either direction of the tunnel lead. For that matter, he didn't even know what city he was. So, with nothing left to do he flipped a mental coin. Heads he would go right, tails left. It landed on tails. Fuchs gave his surroundings another look before letting out a sigh and standing back up and heading off into the seemingly never-ending tunnel.

Many hours and many kilometers later, Fuchs finally came to the end of the tunnel. It was a station. It was a simple station, just a large concrete rectangle dug into the ground, and only about 30 meters long. It sank back of the tunnel about 10 meters. There were only two entrances, both blocked off by very large metal doors with wire mesh covered square windows set in them. At the end of the tracks was a single car. Like the door, the car was painted grey and streaked with rust. Over all the windows was rusted wire mesh. A still bright yellow number 1 was underneath the driver's side of the windshield. The letters ZCMA were painted below that in the same rust streaked yellow.

" _What the heck?"_ Fuchs thought. _"What is this, a prison?"_

He looked around for a sign but didn't see one mounted on the walls. At first, he thought there wasn't one, but then he saw a long thin metal plate laying across the tracks, directly underneath a rusty stain on the concrete.

" _Ah, here we go,"_ he thought.

He walked over and awkwardly flipped the long rusty metal sign over. On the other side he could barely make out the yellow letters, streaked as they were with rusty and calcium deposits. After a few minutes spent figuring out the ones that were obliterated by rust, he was able to determine that it said "ZOOTOPIA MAXIMUM SECURITY PRISON STATION ALPHA".

 _"Where the heck is Zootopia?"_ he thought.

The fact that it was a prison explained why everything was so plain. This was beyond strange. What on earth was he doing in a subway tunnel that lead to a prison? And by the looks of it, a high security one. He wondered why it had been abandoned, and where the tunnel lead in the other direction.

"Well, I guess the only thing left to do is get inside," he thought.

He climbed up on the platform and walked over to the door furthest from the tunnel end. The handle was very large, much bigger than it should be. He grasped it and pulled. Nothing happened. As he thought, the door was either locked or rusted shut. Probably both. The next door had the same large handle, but set into the bottom was a smaller door, about the size of a 12-year-old. Fuchs wondered just how much stranger things would become.

Fuchs grasped the handle and pulled. He was extremely surprised to hear a groan issue from the hinges. He tugged again, and the door moved a couple centimeters out. After 10 minutes of hard work, Fuchs was able to get the door open just enough that he could squeeze inside. On the other side was a room with another metal door. Next to the door was a large window with wire mesh built in. the inner door was just as rusty as the one he had just forced open.

Fuchs was exhausted; his eyelids were felt as if someone had tied small lead fishing weights to them. He decided he should take a nap before he went any further. He didn't want anyone getting the jump on him because he was to sleepy to react fast enough. Without further ado he sat down against the wall, facing the door he had just come through. Just as he was nodding off to sleep, a vision of a tank exploding passed through his mind. The peculiar starkness of this vision was not enough to keep him awake though, and within minutes he had drifted off to sleep.

 **St. Stanislaus was a real person, and the story about him bringing Piotr back to life is not of my creation. He lived back in the early 1000s. I did my best to stick with the official way things went for him, with the obvious exception being the addition of the fictional gem. However, it was very hard to find any real detailed information, specifically about his coffin. The only thing I had to go off of for his sarcophagus was a couple pictures of the outside. I made up the part about the wooden coffin inside the metal one.**

 **I mean absolutely no disrespect to anyone who worships in the Catholic church, neither do I mean any disrespect to Stanislaus. When I read the legend about him bringing Piotr back to life, I just knew I had found the basis for my story.**

 **There is a good reason why Fuchs knows about NVGs. NVGs were invented by the Germans in the early 1930s and in fact were being used on a limited basis by German tankers and infantry as early as 1939. So yes, it was possible for Fuchs to have had experience with them.**

 **Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I had a fun time writing it. I even learned a few things. As always, I would love to hear from you, so please leave a review with your thoughts and ideas.**

 **One last thing, I will work on making all my chapters longer. I realized that the last two are a bit short.**

 **Signing off,**

 **Erwin.**


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Feldwebel Franz Oster was the commander of a Panzerkampfewagon IV ausf G, also known as a Pzkpfw IV ausf G. He and a large number of his tanker brethren were poised on the edge of a field in a woodland near the small Russian town of Prokhorovka. This was part of a larger offensive that had started a few days earlier on July 5, 1943. It was currently the morning of July 12. The Germans had advanced quite far and were very close to one of the objectives, this small town. This was going to be the last major push, Franz could feel it. But he had a sense of foreboding. Something bad was going to happen. He decided not to dwell on that though.

The day before he and his 4 crew members had gone over every inch of their vehicle, making sure it was ready to go. Otto Rimsky, the gunner, had checked over all the ammunition. Not just for the 50mm main gun, but also for the two 7.92mm machine guns. Otto was often teased in a good-natured way about his Russian last name, but he might as well have had the most German name possible, as he was intensely loyal to the fatherland. On top of that, he was a crack shot. He claimed he could put a shell through the driver's port of a t34 from 400 meters.

The driver, Heinz Ulex who, along with radio operator/front machine gunner Joachim Vaerst, doubled as the crew mechanics. They had gone over all the mechanical parts, especially the suspension and turret. Vaerst also made sure the radio wouldn't break and hid some hard to find spare parts he had scrounged in the tank in case the needed them.

Lastly but not least Karl Dittmer, the loader, had made sure there were rations and spare gasoline on the tank. The last thing they wanted was to get lost and not have any extra food or fuel. In a battle anything could happen, maybe the radio would get knocked out, or the fuel tank punctured. That would require a patch if possible, and a refilling, which is where the extra fuel would come in.

It was still early morning, and they were not supposed to go into action until later that day. But something was up. Franz could hear what sounded like hundreds of engines coming from the Soviet lines about a kilometer away. They had been going for the last hour or so. Suddenly, at around 8 o'clock, all hell broke loose. Artillery shells started screaming down around the German vehicles. Franz screamed at his crew to get their butts inside the tank. To be sitting outside it was a death wish. The artillery was over in half an hour, luckily, no tanks were knocked out. The artillery barrage was just the beginning though, for Franz could still hear those hundreds of enemy engines, and they were getting closer.

Franz was part of a 7-vehicle company, all Panzer IVs, under the command of Rudolph von Ribbentrop. Ribbentrop was a fast mover. As soon as the barrage was over he rallied the seven tanks under his command and lead them out of the encampment, over a bridge that went over an anti-tank ditch, and on to a hill that was one of the objectives for later in the day. They fanned out, heading for the right side of the hill intent on going around it. Once they got halfway around the hill, enough to see around the other side, they stopped. In front of them was a hoard of Soviet tanks, t34s. Hundreds of them. Franz quietly sat down in the tank and buttoned the hatch over his head. He had never seen so many enemy tanks before. After few seconds delay, he screamed at his gunner to open fire. At the same time, the other Pz IVs did the same. It was impossible to miss. The t34s were everywhere, firing as they came. Franz watched as random enemy vehicles exploded. He could tell which ones Otto hit because Otto was calling each one out as he shot. The Soviet fire was inaccurate, but it was still incoming fire. It didn't seem to matter how many tanks Franz and the other panzer IVs knocked out, they just kept coming. Then the tank to Franz's left took a hit and exploded, its turret flying off to the rear. Franz yelled at his driver to start backing up, as the t34s were within 20 meters. Otto fired one more shot and a t34 went up in flames. They couldn't turn around, that would expose their weekly armored rear, so they had to back up. This was slow, and they would pay the price. Another tank, this one to Franz's right went up in smoke, having received an unlucky hit at the base of the turret. Franz screamed at Ulex to go faster, even though he knew it was impossible. The hoard of Soviet tanks was very close now, 10 meters or so. Then it happened.

A great wall of flame shot through the front of the tank, killing Ulex instantly and severely wounding Vaerst. The flames also burned Franz's legs, causing him to collapse to the floor of the tank. He didn't have time to dwell on the pain though, for within seconds a second enemy shell hit, this one found the ammunition for the main gun. The remaining 75 shells went up all at once.

The explosion was spectacular. It was later described as one of the most impressive explosions of the battle. The sides of the tank bulged out, then ruptured, sending large chunks of metal out to the sides. One piece was big enough and fast enough that upon hitting a nearby T34 in the suspension it totally knocked it out. The turret flew straight up, easily a hundred meters. It landed on a T34, bending the enemy tanks gun barrel, effectively taking it out of the fight.

The death of the crew was instantaneous.

* * *

Something smelled like cooked meat. Or more precisely, foul cooked meat. Franz opened his eyes. Or at least he thought he did. It was so dark the only way he could tell if his eyes were open was by his blinking. He was still in the tank, he could tell. Everything he touched was metal, and some of it he could recognize the shape. He called out for his crew. Surprisingly, he got an answered from all of them. They were all in the tank with him.

"My body feels strange commander," he heard Rimsky say. "It feels slimy."

Now that he thought about it, Franz's body felt strange too. It was as if he was covered in petroleum jelly. Whenever he moved, the foul smell flared up a little. He could hear the other members of his crew moving around. They all complained of the dark, and the strange feeling they all had.

Franz just sat there. They all did. He could remember the battle, he remembered the hit, then his memory ceased. He learned it was the same for the others too. Then he heard a scream. He recognized the voice, it was Ulex, the driver.

"What's wrong!" Franz yelled

"My face! I just pulled a chunk of skin off it!" cried Ulex. "I'm holding it in my hand! What's happening?!"

Franz could feel the tension mount, he could hear the others, presumably examining their bodies. Franz felt his own face. It was strange. He didn't really feel himself touching himself, instead, he just felt a little pressure. He could tell there was something oily about his skin, as his fingers slid around on his forehead. Damn, he wished he had light.

"Quiet down! We need light and some fresh air. I'm going to open the turret hatch and see what's out there."

Franz stood up and reached for the commander's hatch in the top of the turret. He spun the handle, then slowly pushed it open, keeping his head inside the tank. In rushed fresh air, well, mostly fresh air. It was tinged with the smell of exhaust. It was dark outside, but not as dark as it was inside the tank. There were also noises outside, noises that sounded like a large city.

Franz didn't know what to think. He sat back down in the tank, without looking outside.

"What's out there, sir?" asked Dittmer, the loader.

Franz thought for a second, then said

"Hold on, I'll check."

He cautiously stood up, slowly poking his head out through the hatch. At first, he didn't see anything, then he turned around. What he saw made him sit back down in a stupor. On both sides of the tank was a brick wall, with about a half meter of free space on either side. In front of the tank was a road, about 10 meters away. It appeared they were in an alleyway. Franz had seen something else that was equally disturbing, if not more so. The light outside had been enough for him to see himself, and what he saw was charred flesh. His hands were brown and black, and the skin and nails were shriveled. His arms were the same way, he assumed the rest of his body was too. The watch on his wrist still worked, but it appeared fused to his skin. It said it was 5:45 in the morning.

 _"_ _At least time still works,"_ thought Franz.

He was not sure what to make of all this. He could still remember the battle, the attack of the Soviet tanks, and the explosion. That had all been out in the wilderness though, not a city.

He told the crew about the alley but didn't say anything about his skin. Dittmer had to see for himself, so he stood up out of the hatch and looked around. He quickly sat back down, panting.

"It's true," he said. "And there is something wrong with our skin." Franz couldn't see his facial expression, but he guessed it would be one of shock. The tension in the air got even more intense, and he could tell the rest of the crew didn't know what to do. Finally, he said,

"Let's go over everything in the tank, see what still works and what doesn't. Check the ammo too, see how much we've got left. I'm going to sit outside for a smoke. Vaerst, you and Ulex come out and check over the outside, but don't wonder! We'll scout later."

Franz dug around in the pocket of his surprisingly unburned pants and found some fags cigarettes and matches. He climbed through the hatch, followed by Ulex and Vaerst.

Upon seeing their bodies, Vaerst and Ulex paused. Ulex cursed, but Vaerst remained silent. After a few minutes, they went about their duties. Franz sat on the turret, feet planted on the front hull, and lit one up. He sat there for a while, not keeping track of the time. His mind was mostly blank as he listened to the tinkering and cursing of his driver and radio operator as they checked out the vehicle. This whole situation was crazy. Franz had no explanation, the only thing he could think of was that they were in the afterlife, either that or they had been blown to the future. He didn't really care which, maybe it was something else entirely. In minutes, he had gone through half his pack of cigs before he noticed that they were having no effect on him. Then he realized something. He had not been breathing this whole time. His inhales had simply been chest movements done by habit. Now that he thought about it he couldn't remember ever having inhaled the smoke. He tried to inhale, this time deliberately paying attention to whether air passed his lips. Nothing. He could feel his chest move, but there was no air flow. This stunned him, but to be honest he wasn't all that surprised, considering how burned he was, it was only natural that his lungs be burned just as bad. He wondered if it was the same for the others.

"I'm going to go look outside the alley real quick," He called to Vaerst and Ulex, "See what we're up against."

They acknowledged him, and with that he climbed off the tank and made his way to the end of the alley, cautiously poking his head around the corner. It was bright outside, but the sun didn't make his skin sizzle, that was nice. The alley opened onto a two-lane road that ran between a long line of brick and metal buildings, mostly 2 to 4 stories. To the left, the road intersected another road which looked like it ran deeper into the city, not where he wanted to go. To the right the buildings tapered off, leading to an open highway. That looked like a promising place. Franz wanted to get away from the town, preferably find an abandoned building or a nice place in the woods. At first, he didn't see anyone, but he saw cars parked along the street, and he could hear city noises coming from farther away.

Something wasn't right. For one, everything seemed newer, much newer, and the cars were oddly shaped. Some were large, some really tall. Others were way too small to fit a human. There also seemed to be duplicates of certain things, like stairways and doors, and even the road itself, yet they had been shrunk to something more befitting a city from Lilliput.

Then he saw someone, or rather, something. For coming out of one of the stores was what appeared to be a wolf, walking on two legs and wearing clothes, a suit to be precise. He quickly ducked back into the alley, certain that he had not been seen. What he'd seen shook him to his core, and he was yet again at a loss for thoughts. He ran back and climbed back on the tank. He didn't mention the wolf anyone. He figured they would see for themselves, or if they didn't he would break the news when they found a good spot for a base.

20 minutes later Vaerst and Ulex finished their inspection and climbed on top of the tank. They sat down by their commander. Franz held up a hand and told them to wait to give their report. He wanted all the crew around to hear. Dittmer and Rimsky had been done for a little while by then and had climbed through the hatch and found a seat on the turret. Here they noticed their bodies for the first time. They sat quietly, looking at their exposed skin. Dittmer quietly said a prayer, and Rimsky followed suit. Franz broke the silence with;

"Ok, how's the old girl?"

"The suspension is perfectly fine, as are all the other external mechanisms and the engine. We also have a full fuel tank" Said Vaerst. "It's as if we never went through that battle."

"Excellent, how's the inside?"

It took Rimsky and Dittmer a few seconds to answer, as they were still mulling over their new condition, but finally, Dittmer said;

"In perfect working order sir. I might also add that we have somehow recouped all the ammunition we expended, which was easily 15 or 20 rounds from the main gun."

Franz was glad the tank was in working order, and he had to admit the replenishment of the ammo was odd, but he was grateful that they had all of it. They might need it.

Franz checked his watch, it was nearly 8:30. and he could see the rays of the sun peeking through the opening of the alley, slowly working their way toward him and his crew. It was only a matter of time before they were discovered, they had to do something, but he didn't know what. He wondered what the coming day would hold. Would they get blown to smithers again? Would they have to fight their way out? Would the sun burn them like vampires? So many questions were running through his head, and doubtless the heads of the others as well.

"Let's get the engine running, load the gun, and be ready to move and fight at a moment's notice. I want to find a better hiding place before the day is out, someplace we can set up a base of sorts."

The crew all nodded, then climbed back inside, grateful to finally be doing something toward a possible remedy of their situation. The engine rumbled to life, and Franz could hear the closing of the breach of the gun as Dittmer loaded a High Explosive round. Franz leaned inside the

"Ok men, when we go out turn right and floor it. The road opens about 600 meters that way, I'm thinking it heads out into the country, that's where we want to go. Everyone ready?"  
A chorus of "jas" reached his ears.

"Ok then, los geht's!"

* * *

It had been a day since leaving the town, and they had found an abandoned railroad that led to a long, dark tunnel in the side of a mountain. This, they turned into a temporary base. So far no one had come close to finding them, but they had heard a few aircraft fly over. Oddly enough, none of them felt hungry, even though they hadn't eaten anything since that fateful morning in Russia. This was probably due to the fire damage, just like their lack of being able to inhale. Rimsky had also brought to all their attention that the shell they had fired had miraculously resupplied itself. By this time, however, none of them were surprised by anything anymore.

The day before, the little expedition had gotten off to a bad start when Ulex pulled too hard on the right track locking lever coming out of the alley. It turned out that pretty much all the buildings on that road were apartments. This meant there were vehicles parked all along the road. Ulex ended up squashing a couple of strange looking cars and knocking down a light post before finally correcting himself and driving out to the middle of the road. At first, there was no one around, but that did not last long. The commotion caused by wrecking the vehicles and the noise of the tank's engine woke anyone who wasn't already awake and caused all of them to either stick their heads out a window or come out a door. They weren't normal people either. They were animals. Animals of all kinds and in various states of dress. Dress! These animals had clothes on! He could hear Ulex curse when he saw them.

The view outside the vehicle was very limited. Pretty much only forward. Not to mention one could hear nothing that was going on outside. This caused Franz to overcome his fear of possible attack and open the commander's hatch in the turret. Franz stood up, the top half of him sticking out of the tank. Seeing himself was still shocking, but he was getting over it quickly. In fact, he was starting to like it.

With a top speed of only 44 k/h (27mph), it was going to take a while before they put any useful distance between them and the town. He hoped that there wasn't any police or military around to chase them. It probably would not end well. They had almost made it to the end of the line of buildings when Franz heard the unmistakable sound of sirens coming from behind him and his front. Sure enough, within seconds a large black and white vehicle squealed around the corner behind them, and 2 more came up from his left and right and blocked his path to his front. It was obviously the police.

"Sheisse!" he said. He called through his headset;

"Dittmer, Rimsky, turn the turret around. We've got company! Get ready to fire a warning shot 20 meters in front of them at my command! Vaerst, stay ready on that machine gun for the ones in front, shoot if they don't move. Give them a warning shot first though! Ulex, drive over them if we have to!"

He was answered by the slow rotation of the turret and a few "Jas" through his headset. He had to hold on to the edges of the hatch cupula and lift his feet off the ground, so he could turn with the turret. The black and white vehicle was getting close, only 50 or so meters now. He figured it was time to show them they could bite.

"Fire!"

Rimsky pulled the trigger. A flower of orange flame shot out the muzzle of the gun and was followed a split second later by an enormous explosion about 20 meters in front of the pursuing…car? Franz figured that's what it was.

The shot had the desired effect. The lone car slammed on breaks, skidding to a halt at the edge of the crater.

"Wunderbar!" Franz called through the radio. That should stop them, and it did, but only for a minute. The car slowly worked its way through the shallow but wide crater and continued in its pursuit, albeit not as quickly. Franz cursed. By this time, they had reached the two-vehicle blockade in front of them. The only option they had was to go over them, so they did. The tank lurched and bucked as it partly crushed and shoved aside one of the offending cars.

They were out now, on a road that headed for some forested mountains.

" _We'll hide in there_ , _maybe find a cave or something like that_." thought Franz.

But the haven of the mountains and its blanketing forest was easily four or five kilometers away, and they still had that police car trailing them. Once on the open road, the vehicle accelerated very quickly until it was parallel to the tank. Franz could see through its tinted windows. Inside appeared to be a grey rabbit driving and a red fox in the passenger seat on the radio. Both were staring back at him.

 _"_ _That is so sleek and new looking!"_ Franz thought. _"It doesn't look like anything I've ever seen. We must be in the future. But why animals?"_ This was something he would think about more later. Right now, he had more pressing matters to deal with. The fox finished on the radio and started to roll down the window, it looked like it was about to say something, but Franz didn't wait to hear it. Not that he would have been able to anyway with his headset on.

"Ulex!" he yelled through the mic. "There's a car on our left, right up alongside us. Knock it off the road!"

Ulex responded by immediately locking the left track, slewing the vehicle around and nailing the police car, sending it careening off the road and nosediving into a ditch. It reared up on its front end for a second, before slowly falling back on its wheels. Smoke began to seep from the car's engine compartment. Franz couldn't see the occupants anymore, but he didn't really care what had happened to them. He was just glad no one was following him anymore.

Ulex turned the tank back in the right direction and floored it. 20 or so minutes later they had made it to the forest. The road went straight for a few more meters before rising and disappearing in a right turn.

Franz wasn't much of a religious man, though he was raised Catholic, he still sometimes asked for direction from the one above. Now would be a good time to ask for a favor, so he said a quick prayer to the Virgin Mary, asking her to bless them with a good hiding spot.

* * *

That Friday had started out like most others since the conclusion of the Night Howler case. That was two and a half years ago now. My, how time flew.

Judy woke up to the blaring of her 5 am alarm. She slapped the off button and quickly sat up. Nick stirred beside her but continued to snore. Even though he had been getting up around this time five days of the week for the last year or, he had yet to get used to it. Judy almost always had to shake him awake. If there was one thing he missed about being single it was getting up later on work days.

"Come on, Nick! Get your lazy bum up!" Judy cried, giving the fox a hard shake.

"Geeze Carrots," Nick said sleepily, "Why are we always getting up so early? We don't have to be there till 7:30!"

"Just because! I don't like even the possibility of being late. You know that."

"Yeah, yeah," he grumbled. "Well, I ain't joining you in your morning workout today. I think I'll just sit and enjoy a couple cups of joe."

Judy gave a little huff at that and gave Nick her best bunny eyes, but Nick wouldn't change his mind. Not this morning. He didn't like it when Judy woke him up so early even though they'd been living together for a year a now, he had never gotten used to it. He never got mad. It's just who she is and to be honest he thought it was rather enduring. Once he was awake, he could never fall back asleep. Nick watched from the bed as his wife change into some workout clothes and went into the spare bedroom, which had been turned into a small gym. He heard her begin her morning workout.

He sighed and swung his legs off the bed, then shuffled over to the kitchen area in his pajamas. Nick and Judy lived in an apartment within walking distance of the police station. Their relationship since Nick had joined the force had grown in leaps and bounds until one day, about a year ago, Nick surprised Judy by dropping to one knee and presenting the ring in the middle of the giving of assignments for the day.

Of course, Nick had planned it with Bogo first. Nick had asked him about it a couple days before. He still chuckled at the thought of how angry Bogo would have been for interrupting assignments without asking.

 **Flashback: Little over a year ago**

It was like any other late June day. Hot and humid. Nick had taken a cab today. Normally he would have walked, but because today was going to be a special occasion and he didn't want to mess up his uniform sweating so he had elected to take a cab to the station.

Nick had woken up earlier than usual to prepare for it. First, he had showered again, even though he had taken one the night before. Not something he usually did.

Then he used an expensive mouth wash to go along with his teeth brushing.

 _"_ _Gotta take all precautions."_ He thought.

Next, he took special care to comb his fur, making sure that there were no tufts poking out or little bald spots from where he had been laying on it. Upon completion of these tasks, he went back into his room and picked out his newly cleaned and ironed police uniform. He carefully arranged it on his bed, so as to not wrinkle it, then began putting it on.

The pants were first. Nick was careful not to crumple them and damage the nice crease that ran down the middle of both legs. Next was his shirt. A dark blue button-up shirt with a pocket over the heart. He neatly tucked it into his pants. Next was his belt.  
It took him at least 10 more minutes of carefully putting on the rest of uniform. Including his new, buffed and shined leather shoes that had cost him a small fortune. The last to be put on was his tie. He was an expert at those.

Nick regarded himself in the mirror. He looked good if he did say so himself.

He grabbed his now signature aviators, dark black lenses with silver frames, and put them on before heading downstairs and out the door. The ride to the station was quick, nevertheless, the small box in Nick's front right pants pocket still managed to dig into his leg, no matter how much he adjusted it.

 _"_ _Good grief, why is this so hard to make comfortable?"_ he thought

Thankfully he didn't have to deal with it long, for the discomfort was forgotten almost as soon as he stepped out of the car. Walking up the station's main entrance steps was a grey rabbit named Judy Hopps. She turned around at the sound of a car door closing and saw Nick.

"Hey Nick!" she called, running back down the stairs to greet him. "Started taking a cab to work now I see." She regarded him for a second before asking; "So, what's the occasion? I see you have made your uniform extra spiffy today, and why are you here so early?" Nick never got to the station more 5 or so minutes early. Today he was at least 15. He just didn't want to risk being late today.

"Heya to you too Carrots!" Nick said. "You'll see. It's going to be a special day today."

"Really? What for?" Judy looked around then leaned in close and whispered, "I won't tell anyone, promise."

Nick laughed. Judy was so cute when she got excited. She was cute pretty much all the time he thought.

"You'll learn soon enough fluff. I can't tell you right now." He fingered the box in his pocket as he talked.

Judy let out a disappointed sound but didn't walk away. Together they climbed the steps to the station entrance and walked inside, Nick holding the door like any good gentleman should. Ben Clawhauser greeted them from his usual spot behind the front desk. Ben was one of the earliest risers Nick had ever known. He was always at his post here at the station and ready to go long before Nick and Judy got there. Nick was quite impressed. Especially considering the cheetah was not exactly in shape and was almost constantly snacking on something.

"Hey, guys!" He said.

"Hi, Ben! How's it goin ole boy?" Nick replied.

"Good! Just beat one of the hardest levels on this new phone game I got. Wanna see?"  
Nick and Judy both laughed. Judy said "Not today Ben. Thanks though!"

"Aww, ok. See ya!"

The bullpen was already a buzz of voices when they walked in. Quite a few people were here earlier than usual. Nick smiled when he saw this, causing Judy to look at him with suspicion. Something was up, and she knew it, she just didn't know what.

They took their seats at the front of the room as usual. A little while later Chief Bogo walked in, a half inch brown file under his left arm. He went to the podium and laid the file down, before clearing his throat and saying;

"Before we get on with today's assignments, one of our own has an announcement of sorts that he would like to make." He nodded to Nick, before standing back from the podium. Nick stood up and said "Ladies and gentlemen! I have something that I would like all of you to witness."

He pulled his chair away from the table, creating a clear spot beside Judy. Judy was begging to grasp what was going on, and her excitement was starting to make her tremble. Nick reached into his pocket and pulled out a small dark blue box. Then he opened it and, in front of the whole room, dropped to one knee and said

"Judy Hopps, will you marry me?"

Judy nearly screamed with delight. She had been waiting on this moment for a long time it seemed.  
"Yes!" She said loudly, flinging her arms around Nick's neck to the loud applause of the rest of the room. Even Bogo was clapping. Nick's heart was racing. He felt as if he had just scored a 100-yard touchdown. He had never felt so good.

Judy unwound her arms and stood back, then held out her hand. Nick took the delicate looking silver and sapphire engagement ring from the box and placed it on Judy's finger. Judy beamed with delight. That had been an absolutely wonderful day.

 **END FLASHBACK**

That was one of Nick's favorite memories, and he revived it this morning while waiting for the coffee to brew. By the time Judy had finished her workout and getting ready for the day, Nick had finished two cups of his favorite brew, black of course. He still hadn't gotten dressed yet, but it was only 6:45. He had plenty of time.

By 7:00 they were all ready to go. Judy still couldn't get over how good Nick looked in his uniform. She thought he looked like someone from a movie. The aviators he wore gave him that motorcycle cop look.

"Well Carrots, time for another day of saving the city!" Nick said only semi-sarcastically.

They reached the station with a few minutes to spare. The bullpen filled quickly. Everyone taking their normal seats. Bogo came in last and huffed his way to the podium.

"OK! Quiet down everyone!" he bellowed.

Everyone hushed, as usual.

"First things first, we had a call at 7:05 this morning about a strange mammal in an alleyway over on Forest Street. The one who called it in, who happens to be a well-respected lawyer, said that the person had oily brown skin and a strange hole in its face above its mouth. He said it had no fur but was wearing a black shirt with some sort of insignia on it, and a black headset with a wire coming from it over a cap. He only got a brief glance at it, but he said it was very unsettling. He is quoted as saying 'It looked almost as if it was dead.'"

He paused to look around the room, before continuing;

"Nick, Judy, I want you to check this one out. It's probably nothing, but we have to send someone. It'll give you something to do for the first little bit of your shift" He said, looking at the rabbit and fox in the front row.

Nick laughed and said;

"We're on it chief."

"Good" said Bogo.

Bogo continued dolling out assignments, which didn't take long, but Nick wasn't paying much attention. He was intently watching his wife's nose, which was twitching quite a bit, with excitement, or boredom, Nick couldn't tell. Nick almost couldn't take the cuteness of it. Then Judy looked at him. It took a second to realize she was telling him to come on. Bogo had ended the briefing without his hearing.

 _"_ _I'll have to work on not spacing out so much,"_ Nick thought.

Judy was a little annoyed at Nick after the briefing for spacing out and his answer about how cute her nose was when it twitched didn't help matters any. They headed for the garage where their cruiser was kept. Judy got in on the driver's side. The seat was too big for her, and the gas and brake pedals had to be raised so she could reach them, but she didn't mind. She had asked Nick if he wanted to drive instead one time, but he said he liked riding in the passenger seat. He didn't give an explanation.

"You know where Forest Street is right Nick?" she asked as she jumped inside.

"Of course, Carrots!" Nick said, feigning hurt. "I know all the streets around here. It's not too far, only a kilometer or so that way." He pointed towards the edge of town.

Halfway there they got a call over the radio.

"ALL AVAILABLE UNITS TO FOREST STREET IMMEDIATELY! WE HAVE A STRANGE AND PRESUMED HOSTILE VEHICLE DRIVING DOWN THE ROAD. IT HAS CRUSHED THREE CARS AND DESTROYED A LIGHT POST. IT APPEARS ARMED SO USE EXTREME CAUTION!"

For a few seconds after the transmission ended, the only sound in the cruiser was the hum of the engine. Then Judy snapped into action, flipping on the lights and siren and flooring the gas. Nick got on the radio and acknowledged the call, saying they would be there very soon.

"It's right up here, Carrots!" Nick almost yelled, "Next left turn!"

They were at the turn in no time, Judy slammed the wheel to the left, skidding the car around the corner. Sure enough, about 400 meters ahead of them there was a grey boxy looking thing with tracks like a bulldozer. It was driving away from them.

On top of the flat ended metal box was a turret. Sticking out of a hatch was none other than the brown-skinned, furless creature described earlier at the station. He turned around and saw them. Judy saw him talk into the headset he was wearing. Then the turret slowly rotated, bringing to bear the unmistakable form of a gun. And a big one at that.

The brown-faced creature sneered, then said something into his mic. Seconds later there was an orange flash followed immediately by a booming noise and a large explosion right in front of them. Judy barely had time to react. She slammed on the breaks, bringing the car to a screeching halt right on the edge of a shallow crater. Smoke and dust from the explosion settled over the windshield and drifted in through the AC vents.

She looked over at Nick. His glasses had gone flying and were now lying broken on the dashboard. But other than that, and the pained expression he wore from seeing his favorite glasses shattered, he was fine.

"Geeze! He exclaimed. "That was a close one eh Carrots? What type of gun is that? Why don't we have anything like it?"

"Like I would know!" Judy said. She flipped the windshield wipers on, getting rid of the thin coating of dust. Once it had been cleared she could see two more police cars that had arrived and blocked off the end of the road. Judy slowly worked the cruiser through the crater. Then, more cautiously than before, set off after the grey box on tracks, not sure if it would stop at the roadblock or not. It didn't. Instead, it barreled into one of the blocking cruisers, pushing it aside while at the same time riding over its engine. Once past, it continued down the road, the brown creature watching them.

Once past the wrecked cruiser, Judy hit the gas, causing Nick to yelp in surprise.

"What are you doing Judy?!" he yelled. "Didn't you see what that thing just did?"

Nick was obviously pissed. Judy could tell. He only used her first name like that when he was mad.

"Duh," Judy replied, not taking her eyes off the road. "But did you see how slow that turret turned? I'm thinking that if I can get up beside it, maybe I can talk to the thing in the hatch, get him to stop."

"You think it'll listen?!" Nick said. "I mean, it's not like it just shot at us and then ran over a police car!"

"I don't know Nick, but I have to try. I don't want it to get away and I don't want anyone else to get hurt."

Nick rolled his eyes but didn't say anything. " _Classic Judy_ ," he thought.

"Crap, I just realized it's on the right side of the road. Nick, you're going to have to do the talking."

"What?!" Seriously Carrots? This was your idea, not mine!"

"Just go with it! Please, Nick? For me?"

She gave Nick the best 'bunny eyes' she could while driving. Nick sighed. "Ok Carrots. I will. But if it was anyone else asking I'd say forget it"

"Thanks, Nick, I knew I could count on you. I definitely'll make it worth your while." She said, winking. Nick just smiled at her.

As Judy maneuvered around the wrecked police cruiser that was still partly blocking the road and quickly accelerated to 80 K/H (50mph), Nick got on the radio and gave a quick report of what had happened and what they were about to do, ending with a request for more backup. Judy raced up to the left side of the lumbering grey box, now matching its speed, just as Nick finished his call. Nick had just started to roll down the window when suddenly, the grey box lurched to the left, slamming into the front right of the cruiser. Nick gave a surprised yelp as the cruiser was thrown off the road and into a ditch, flipping up onto its front end and standing there for a second. Then it slowly fell back down on its wheels, smoke seeping from under the hood.

 **OK folks. This used to be chapters one and two, I combined those chapters to get this one. Should make it flow better.**

 **Signing off,**

 **Erwin.**


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 3**

It had now been three days since they had woken up in the alley and the crew were beginning to get restless, and if he was honest with himself, Oster was too. The only real activity they had had since becoming holed up was when Oster had taken them out to destroy the tracks they left in the dirt. The tracks would have led straight to them, but they had efficiently and effectively erased them. Thankfully, the train tracks had been torn up long ago, so they didn't have to worry about crushed ties and broken rails.

On the way back from track destroying, Ulex had stopped at the tunnel entrance to pull a yellow sign with black lettering out of the dirt. It had been crushed by the tank when it ran through the chain link gate that had been blocking the entrance. He had brought it back to the tank and dropped it on the ground. He then rummaged around in the storage lockers until he found a few rags. Once he found those he took a little gasoline and doused the front of the sign with it, before using the rags to wipe off the loosened dirt.

The sign was faded, and streaked with rust, but the words "KEEP OUT- GOVERNEMENT PROPERTY" in English were clearly legible. Ulex thought this odd and showed it to the rest of the crew.

"Do you think we are in America? Or England?" asked Vaerst.

"Maybe," Oster said, "The vehicles that were chasing us had the word "POLICE" on them, along with other words in English that I couldn't understand. But they were so different looking, almost futuristic, that I didn't know what to think."

"I think we should go deeper into this tunnel, see what the 'government' is hiding." Said Ulex.

"Later, let's wait one more full day, just to make sure no one is following us."

Ulex did not like that answer, but he didn't want to argue with his commander, so he propped the sign up against the tunnel wall, where it was quickly forgotten.

Since then they had been doing nothing but sitting around and smoking. The smoking was more for the comfort of an old habit then it was for the nicotine, as their lungs only barely worked. All too soon, even that small luxury was gone, as the cigarettes had run out by the 2nd, day. Their restlessness to go up even more. Oster found himself constantly slipping into day dreams about times back home. Like that one time he and some of his army buddies had gone out drinking and ended up in a jail. He wondered what the others were thinking about.

To make matters worse water was constantly dripping from the ceilings forcing them to keep all the tanks hatches closed. And the darkness. The damn darkness. It was pitch black after only 5 or six meters into the tunnel. The vehicle had lights, but they only faced forward, which rendered them all but useless. Thankfully, their eyes seemed to be unusually adapted to the dark. If it wasn't for that, Oster figured they would have had to find another spot before the first day was over.

They didn't range to far outside the entrance, not needing to use the restroom or find food meant they didn't have much reason too. At least not yet. Oster could tell that if he didn't do something soon, the crew would take matters into their own hands. Not exactly a mutiny, they weren't like that, but they might go out to find something to do and get themselves in trouble. He couldn't let that happen.

The third night, it started raining early in the evening, thunder and lightning quickly filling the sky with bright streaks and deep rumbles. It was a spectacular show, what they could see from the dark maw of the tunnel opening. They had finally all fallen asleep around 12, when they were awakened two hours later by a crunching ad crackling noise louder than the almost incessant thunder. No one was brave enough to go out and see what it was and being unable to sleep after being woken up they sat huddled together for warmth inside the tank. Oster at first forbid starting the engine for fear of being found, but as the night went on he finally consented, and they eventually fall asleep again in the warmth.

They were awakened six hours later by the sound of Vaerst screaming, causing them all to bang their heads and scramble as best they could to ready their fighting positions. Dittmer was the first to figure out what was going on. Vaerst was sitting in his position kicking his legs and holding his head. Dittmer grabbed hold of him and shook him by the shoulders. It took a second, but Vaerst woke up and stopped moving. He looked up, his face was glistening with sweat and he was panting. There was a look of pure fear in his eyes.

"What's wrong?!" Dittmer asked, concern and anxiety etched on his face.

Vaerst's breath slowed down enough for him to answer, and he looked down at his feet. "I had a nightmare. I dreamed about the explosion, the one on the hill."

At this Rimsky let out a low snort, eliciting disapproving glances from the others

"I, I could feel the fire on me," Vaerst continued with a shudder. "It rushed up to my waist, then slowed and slowly started working its way up me. I couldn't do anything! I was helpless to stop it! You guys were all dead, just charred bodies. Then you woke me up, thank God, and here I am. I miss my family." He let out a small sob and reached into his pocket to take out a wrinkled picture of his wife and son.

Dittmer cleared his throat, not really knowing what to say. He looked at Oster who obviously wasn't sure what to say either, but knew he had to say something. Oster sighed, then said more to the whole crew then to just Vaerst; "Look guys, I know this has been an extremely traumatic experience so far. I mean, it would appear that we are dead! Who wouldn't find that traumatic? I also know that we are all missing our families, more so now than if we were still back… where we came from." As he said that he looked pointedly at Rimsky. Rimsky was the only one to either not be married or to not have a sweetheart back home. Rimsky was also the youngest, and he was sometimes inconsiderate of his comrade's feelings. Oster continued; "Because of this, I have decided that today is the day we get off our asses and do something about our situation. If we can't change it back to how it was, then we should at least figure out how and why we are here. "

The little speech left everyone, even Rimsky, a little emotional, especially after the part about their families.

"So, what are we going to do?" asked Ulex.

"Well, I was thinking we should explore this tunnel some more, but first I want to go outside and see what that crashing sound we heard was." Answered Oster.

Suddenly the tank felt very warm, and they remembered they had started the engine during the night to keep them warm and had not yet turned it off. Ulex reacted quickly and flipped the switch to turn the engine off. The sound died quickly, and they were left with a quiet they didn't know was missing until then.

"Ok frauleins, let's stop sitting around and do something!" Rimsky said, speaking up for the first time that morning.

"That's the best idea I've heard in 10 minutes." Said Ulex.

Oster was sitting directly under the turret hatch, so he stood up and undogged it. As he lifted it up there was a whooshing sound as the hot air inside the tank quickly left, and the much cooler air of the tunnel sank inside. Oster shivered. He climbed out and found a place to stand in front of the turret. The others quickly followed and found places to sit or stand. The air outside the tunnel was bright and clear, albeit a bit chilly. Oster could hear birds singing, the smell of wet earth drifted past his nostrils. He looked around for Dittmer. He saw him standing next to the sign they had leaned up against the wall.

"Hey Dittmer!" he called, "let's go see if we can find what made that noise last night. You others can come if you want."

The tunnel was at the end of a long cut into the mountain, the walls of the cut started out low, but quickly grew to 10 or 15 meters in height, staying like this until they reached the tunnel. The slopes were mostly covered in a dark brown dirt that was itself covered in mosses and low growing plants. However, there was the occasional rocky outcropping, so different from its surroundings as to look like a plantar wart.

About halfway down the cut there were two huge trees and a bunch of earth piled up in a wall. The tank would have no hope of getting over, or through, that wall.

"We could destroy them with the gun." Suggested Rimsky. Then he pursed his lips, "but that would make a huge mess of the ground, especially with it being so soggy. Hmmmmm. Too bad we don't have a saw or anything, not that it would do much good now that I think about it."

"Not only that," added Dittmer. "but the explosion probably wouldn't do much. More than likely it would just cause more stuff to fall."

"He's right," Oster sighed, scratching an imaginary itch on his face, causing him to grimace when he felt his skin. "The shock from the explosions could easily cause more landslides, which would only make our problem worse. It's too bad we lent our cable to Frankie and his crew, we could really use it now."

"No kidding," said Ulex in his best American accented English. They gave him a funny look. They all spoke English, but only passably. None spoke it as well as Ulex. Ulex had spent two years in America in the early 30s, traveling around with his rich grandparents. He was the only one to have spent much time outside of Germany and was considered the smart one among them. In his normal voice he continued, "I like the idea of exploring the tunnel. I mean, we might as well. It'll also give the ground time to dry out, and the tunnel has to open somewhere, so we can just use that as the entrance."

Oster had already thought of this. I figured that the tunnel would pop out on the other side of the mountain, and they could just find another way back around. He was really itching to explore.

" _We should find a high spot, somewhere we can look over that city we left."_ He though.

He voiced his idea out loud. The others agreed, so Oster sent them scurrying all over the tank, giving it a once over. Ulex reported that once again the fuel had not been depleted at all, despite the fact that they had left the engine running most of the night. Odd, but then again, everything about this situation was odd.

At first no one noticed it. A small white light coming from deeper in the tunnel. It slowly grew as it came toward them. Oster was the first to see it.

"Hey!" he called out. "Who are you? What are you doing?"

His calls got the attention of the others, who quickly left what they were doing and joined Oster on the turret to watch the light, the light however did not make a sound. It continued to move at about the pace of someone walking and getting closer. As the light grew stronger, Oster told everyone to get in the tank, and to start the engine. There wasn't enough room to turn the turret around while the tank was in the middle of the tunnel, but Oster had a solution. After everyone was in their positions, with Oster protruding from the hatch and watching the mysterious light grow brighter, the tank started moving. Oster's plan was to snuggle the vehicle up against the wall to give the turret and gun enough space to turn around. Once up against the wall, Rimsky slowly turned the turret so that it was facing the light, which by now was only a dozen or so meters away.

Oster called out again, this time saying "Halt! Or we will be forced to use the gun! HALT!"

This time the light did stop and lowered toward the ground. A voice from someone still hidden in the dark behind the light spoke. It was speaking in German.

"Keine augst." it said. "I am not going to harm anyone. I am here to bring to you a way for all of you to get back to your loved ones."

"Why should we believe you?" yelled Oster. "What are you? A guard?"

A short laugh issued from behind the light. "No really, I am." The light then got brighter and revealed a tall man in a business suit wearing a Hamburg hat. The light appeared to be emanating from the palm of his left hand. He started walking toward them again.

"You see,' He said, "I am part of the group who sent you here in the first place. We call ourselves the Crafters, as it was us who made everything else."

Oster just looked at him, not sure if he was going crazy or what. The light must have been some sort of trick.

" _This guy's lost his mind."_ He thought.

Ulex called over the intercom, asking what was going on. Ulex and Vaerst were facing forward, toward the tunnel entrance, and were unable to see anything behind them. The tanks lights were also facing forward, so were useless.

"There's some guy out here, dressed in a suit and holding some sort of light. He says he's part of some group who sent us here. He says they call themselves the Crafters. I think he's a nut job. Probably a homeless guy who stole a suit."

The man heard Oster accuse him of being a hobo and a suit stealer, so he said;

"I am not a 'suit stealer', neither am I a hobo. If you need proof that I am not one of you, a human that is, then I shall give it to you. Name something that you would like for me to do or show you."

Oster thought for a minute, then asked the man, who had still not identified himself yet, to make a pile of gold appear on the ground. The man chuckled, then with a small flash of light made a pile of gold nuggets appear on the ground. Oster felt his knees go weak, and he nearly fainted, but he caught himself. The shudder that went through him was not caused by the cold and damp of the tunnel they were in.

"Ok, I believe you now. Are you sure you won't hurt us?"

"Positively." The man said. "By the way, I have not introduced myself yet. My name is Nuntius. you can all come out of the tank now. I have something I would like for all of you to hear."

Oster called for the others to follow him out the hatch, then he took off the head set and hoisted himself out, his elbows giving off little pops as the lifted his weight. The others quickly followed suit, and they all stopped to stare at the man. Vaerst was still shaken by his dream and the sight of the strange person caused him to cross himself.

Once they were all outside and looking at him, Nuntius said;

"Greetings. I am Nuntius, at least to you it is. I am one of 10 other beings similar to me. We call ourselves the 'Crafters', because we are the ones who have created all living things. I am the messenger, so to speak. I have the ability to travel to all places in the blink of an eye. I can also take on the form of whatever creature I am visiting, as well as whichever culture that creature belongs too."

Rimsky interrupted him "But why are you here? Why are we here?"

"Have patience mister. I will get there. I come to you because we have lost something, and we need some help getting it back. We…"

He was interrupted again by Rimsky. "If you are so powerful, as you say, then why can you not just get it yourselves?"

"My, aren't you a pushy one?" Nuntius said. "First, let me tell you what we lost and how. This story goes back a looong time, to before your so called 'dark ages'. A man, by the name of Stanislaw, was beseeching the Virgin Mary to help him. His request was for her to bring back someone from the dead. He was in luck, because Misericors happened to be checking up on earth, as earth is one of our newer creations. Misericors got it in her head that it would be a good idea to help Stanislaw in this matter, so she created a gem that had the power to bring people back from the dead. She delivered it to him with much pomp and circumstance and said that he could keep it until his death."

That name, Stanislaw, sounded familiar to Oster but for some reason he couldn't place it.

"It worked, and the man was able to do what he needed to do. However, it never got returned. Instead it was lost, or hidden, I should say. To make matters worse, unbeknownst to us, Misericors had accidentally built a flaw into the gem that caused its powers to degrade into the evil side over time. The gem started out being able to raise bodies back as they had been in the prime of their life, in full function of their faculties. However, as time went on the ability of the gem to raise people and put them back to how they were degraded. Instead, it would raise the bodies in progressively worse states of decay, both mentally and physically. This was made apparent to us about two hundred years later when king used it to bring back people to use in his army, which by the way, helped him win a battle he was losing. It was also brought to our attention that those who have been reanimated can be controlled by the one who reanimated them. Any questions so far?"

"Yes, I have one." said Dittmer. "If you all are so powerful, then why did you lose track of the gem? And for that matter, why can't you find it yourself?" The others murmured their agreement.

"Ah, a good question. You see, there are only ten of us looking for it, and unlike what most people think about what they call gods, we are not omniscient or omnipresent. We sometimes must rely on those that we created to do things for us. Especially since one of us has gone bad and likes to make mischief wherever he goes. Yes, we have created helpers, but there are some things, such as this, that we like to try to resolve on our own.

"Your task is to get the gem back for us. You see, last night the gem was found by an SS captain. Sadly, we were not around, and had to send in some of our helpers, who botched the job. The captain stole the gem and ran for it, heading outside into a storm. The storm though was no coincidence. Fallax, the trouble maker, had known that someone had figured out the whereabouts of the gem. He had been covertly following the captain for weeks. Fallax is very good at hiding what he is doing, so we didn't catch on until it was too late. When the captain got outside, Fallax used a lightning bolt to send the captain to a different world, trying to keep us from getting the gem."

" _That would explain the ferocity of the storm last night."_ Thought Oster

"Why didn't Fallax just come down and get it himself? Before you guys could respond?" piped Vaerst, finally overcoming his nervousness.

"Another good question. Fallax didn't want the gem. He just wanted to make our job harder. Even he didn't know where he was sending the captain. We were only able to find him amongst the hundreds of worlds we have made because of the trail he left in the gel during his passage to this world. "

"Which world is this, and what is the 'gel'?" Oster asked.

"This is the world called 'Zootopia'. Here, we decided to do the opposite of what we did on your world. There are no humans here. Instead, there are animals, and all other mammals have taken humans place. They build cities and create technology much like you. However, this world is slightly older than yours, so they are a bit ahead in some areas. In other areas though, such as that of a military, they are desperately lacking. Only mammals are smart. Birds and reptiles and fish are just as they are on your home planet."

"To answer your next question, the gel is the medium in which we put the stuff we build. I think that your world calls it space. It behaves like a gel, keeping planets in their orbits and other things where they are supposed to be. When the captain was sent through it, he left a very faint trail. Once he made it to this planet, the trail mostly disappeared with the introduction of a new atmosphere. What was left of It lasted just long enough for us to get a general area. We know that he is somewhere within 25 square kilometers. Your job, obviously, is to get the gem back."

"Why were we chosen? Why didn't you just pick someone, or some _animal,_ from here?" Oster asked. "And did you kill us to send us here?" The last part was asked with anger in his voice.

The man laughed. "No, we did not kill you to send you here. You just happened to be killed when we needed you. There were others we could have picked, but we chose you and your crew. As to why we didn't pick someone from here, well, let's just say these creatures aren't known for their military prowess. They have never had a war, and the farthest their weapons have advanced is tranquilizers and stun guns. If the captain does what we think he will do, then tranquilizers and stun guns won't be of any help." Almost as an afterthought the man added "Oh, and they prefer the term mammals instead of people."

Then he continued on about the crew's new quest. "I should also warn you about Fallax. We know he will come here, he wants the gem as much as we do. Eventually he will figure out where we are, and he will stop at almost nothing to get what he seeks. He may very well recruit the good captain, so be careful and act quickly. Once you have the gem, bring it back to this tunnel. I will meet you here. Your reward for bringing back the gem will be your return to earth, after the battle you were killed in. In other words, you will be given a second chance at life."

At this, the light issuing from the man's hand dimmed, and he turned around and started to walk away. The tank crew could only stand and stare.

"Auf wiedersehen, meine freunde" the man called, then the light faded out, and he disappeared.

* * *

 **THREE DAYS PREVIOUSLY**

The ringing sound was intense. Nick was sitting in the passenger seat of some vehicle that seemed to be damaged. His vision was swimming, and he was having a hard time forming thoughts. Suddenly, he felt a shaking sensation on his left shoulder. He looked over. There was a grey rabbit vigorously shaking him and yelling, but he couldn't hear what. He noticed how amazingly purple the rabbit's eyes were.

" _Huh."_ He thought.

The shaking continued. Slowly, he became aware of a sound other than the ringing. He realized it was someone yelling at him. He looked at the rabbit again. Then, like his hearing, his vision started to normalize, and the memory of where he was and why he was there rushed back. Everything hit him like a ton of bricks. His whole body ached, like he had just been though a boxing match with someone twice his size.

The rabbit voice, the rabbit was Judy his wife he now remembered, suddenly exploded into clarity.

"Nick! Nick! ARE YOU OK?!"

Nick was suddenly aware that he was being assailed by the cutest thing he had ever seen. He couldn't help but make a huge smile, causing Judy to pause what she was doing, both hands still on his shoulder.

"Woah now Carrots, woah." He said. "Easy on the shoulder! You might make it fall off. Yes. I'm ok, but man, my head aches something fierce."

Upon hearing him, Judy calmed down and leaned back in her seat. "Goodness Nick, you had me scared there. You had that stare where you stared at everything and nothing at the same time."

Nick chuckled and looked around for his glasses. Then he saw them on the floor board, all broken up. " _Oh dang,"_ he thought _. "My glasses! Those were expensive!"_

"DANG IT!" he exclaimed. "My glasses! Those were expensive!" he said out loud this time.

"I'll buy you another pair for your birthday." Said Judy. "But right now we have more important things to worry about."

Nick's thoughts about his glasses were suddenly interrupted by the sound of sirens and the acrid smell of oily smoke. Nick looked out the windshield and saw a thin trickle of dark black smoke coming from under the hood.

"Uh oh," Nick said. "You're right. We shouldn't stick around. It appears the crash caused an oil line to rupture. This thing could go up in flames at any minute."

He went to open his door. The handle moved, but the door wouldn't budge. It didn't give an inch. Judy though got her door open no problem, so Nick scrambled across the seats and climbed out on her side. Together they went a distance from the vehicle and sat down in the grass. Two ambulances, four police cars, and a fire truck quickly arrived at the scene. The police cars blocked off the road in both directions, leaving only a gap for the ambulances. The officers got out of their cars and took up a defensive stance, wearily watching the grey box on tracks disappear down the road, heading toward the forest. No one went after it.

The ambulances screeched to a halt mere feet from Nick and Judy, and within seconds a zebra, a donkey, and two goats had hopped out of their med bays and ran toward the duo sitting on the ground. Following closely behind them were two police officers that Nick and Judy recognized as Fangmeyer and Wolford.

"Hullo! Are you two all right?" the grey/black timber wolf asked when he reached them. Fangmeyer echoed his partners question

"I think so." Judy said to the two officers before directing her attention to the zebra medic, "But Nick here is complaining of a bad headache. He had that stare where you seem to stare at everything and nothing at the same time."

"I'm ok Carrots. I'll be fine."

"We are still going to take you to the hospital though sir, standard procedure I'm afraid." Said the zebra, who had introduced himself as Richard Zute. "Same with you other Officer Wilde."

"That's fine with me!" said Nick, "I have had enough excitement for one day."

The ride to the hospital was uneventful. Nick laid in the mobile bed while the medics did checks on all his vital signs.

Judy wasn't too happy about having to go sit in a hospital for a couple hours while the docs ran tests on her. She was itching to know what that grey thing had been, and what type of creature seemed to be controlling it. She could barely sit still as the tests were run.

Nick on the other hand was his usual self. Completely laid back and seemingly without a care in the world. His smug grin never left his face, except when his was hit on the knee with that little stick they use to test reflexes.

They were let out in just over two hours, with Nick getting the worst diagnostic with a small concussion. His prescription was a couple days of rest. That didn't stop them from going back to the police station for a debriefing.

Upon arriving they were immediately greeted by Ben Clawhauser, the biscuitus cheetah at the front desk, who gave them a resounding "Hey guys! Y'all are on the news! Look at this!" He then pulled up a tab on his computer from the ZBC and showed them a video. It was taken from a helicopter that had followed the backup police vehicles out to the scene. The helicopter had caught the mysterious vehicle on camera as it crashed through the blockade at the end of the street, and then as it hit Nick and Judy's vehicle, sending it into the ditch. The chopper elected not to follow the grey box, instead it went into a looping pattern around the crashed police vehicle.

"I guess we are celebrities again eh Benny?" Nick said with amusement as he watched a bird's eye view of himself and Judy scramble out of the wrecked police cruiser.

"You betcha!" said Ben enthusiastically. "Oooh, this calls for another treat! Care for one?" he asked as he pulled out one of his ubiquitous boxes of pastries.

"Meh, no thanks Ben, we have to go to debriefing with the chief." Said Judy

She gave a start, then looked at Nick with concern in her eyes. Nick stared back, mesmerized by her deep violet eyes. "My family is going to be worried sick! I'll have to call them as soon as we get done with Bogo." She said.

Nick nodded. "I need to call my mom too. Although, I bet she hasn't seen the news yet. She doesn't watch much TV."

Ben wished them good luck as they passed his desk.

Nick wondered why Ben had said good luck. He decided he probably didn't want to know. They quickly arrived at their destination. Judy was just about to knock on the door when it was flung open, revealing the tall, imposing figure of their cape buffalo chief.

"Wilde! Hopps! I would like to speak with you two." He bellowed. Nick gulped and laid his ears against his head, Judy was a little more stoic, but she was still obviously nervous. They followed Bogo into his sparsely decorated office. Bogo still called Judy by her old last name. He had said it was so that he wouldn't have to use first names. Bogo was a stickler for that kind of thing.

Bogo sat down at his desk but didn't offer Nick or Judy either of the two false leather padded oak chairs that were in front of his desk. He was quite for a second, then he said in a tone that made it obvious was highly annoyed;

"That was one of the stupidest things you could have done! What were you thinking?"

Nick and Judy both flinched at this sudden outburst.

" _So, this is why Ben said good luck. He must have known ole Buy One Get One here wasn't in to good a mood."_ Nick thought. Nick was shaken from his thoughts by the continuation of Bogo's rant.

"Why on earth would you chase something that was so obviously extremely dangerous?" Bogo said in a calm, menacing voice. "Not only that, but you got right up next to it! You ended up severely damage police property, and you put two of my best officer's lives at stake!" At this his features softened. He sighed.

"Look, I know you two were just doing your job as best you can. I can't fault you for that." Bogo said in a surprisingly father like voice. "However, I can admonish you for your recklessness. I'm not going to punish you per se, but I am going to give you a mandatory 48 hours paid vacation effective immediately. Understood?"

Judy began to protest, but Bogo cut her off. "No Hopps, there is no negotiating this. You two have had one heck of an eventful day, you both need those two days off."

"You got it chief." Said Nick. "I'll make sure to keep Carrots here out of trouble." He put his arm around the annoyed bunny.

Judy was a little peeved that she wouldn't be able to come in the next day and work on what was starting to be called the "Grey Box affair", but she had to admit she was tired, and those 48 hours did sound inviting. So, when she felt Nick's arm around her shoulders she relaxed and decided that having those days off wouldn't be so bad after all.

"Y'all can go now." Said Bogo, "Don't come back until Monday, understood?"

"Yes sir." They both answered.

"Good. Enjoy your days off then." With that, Bogo went back to working on a small mountain of paperwork and didn't give them a second glance.

Once outside Nick said with a grin;

"Come on Miss. _Hopps,_ Let's go start our weekend, shall we?"

Judy felt her face get warm. Despite being married for a year now, Nick was still able to make her blush like he did back when they barely knew each other. She put her arms around his waist and said with a yawn;

"OK Mr. Wilde, but we must hurry. I think it's going to be dark soon."

"Ah so it is, so it is." Agreed Nick.

Judy's ears suddenly perked up, causing Nick to look at her with alarm.

"I almost forgot!" she cried. "I need to call my parents. Hold on Nick, I'll try to make it fast."

She pulled out her phone and quickly had her parents on the line.

"Hi Mom!

Yes, I'm still alive.

Oh, hi dad!

Yes I'm fine, Nick is too.

What?"

As she was talking Nick pulled out his own phone, figuring he should call his mother to let her know everything was alright. It took her a couple of rings to pick up. His mom wasn't fazed by much, but he could tell by the concern he in her voice that she had indeed watched the news. He assured her that everything was ok and that he and Judy were given the next two days off. Just before hanging up she asked if he would come visit her. He assured he would.

Judy finished just about the same time Nick did.

"My parents want us to come see them during our off days. They asked if we would spend the night, but I told them no to that." Judy laughed.

"I told my mom we would come see her too." Nick said. "Maybe we could make it a long day trip."

"Sounds good to me! But right now, I want to go home. I am beyond tired."

"I was beginning to think you never got tired fluff. My body is aching. I think a nice hot shower and a hot bowel of chicken noodle soup would be perfect."

"Amen to that! Let's go."

Nick and Judy said goodbye to Ben on their way out, then hand in hand lazily walked back to their apartment for some well-earned R & R.

 **This chapter was very fun to write. I especially enjoyed writing about the tank crew again. I found them much easier to write about then Nick and Judy. I wonder why that is? Possibly because I came up with them. I don't know.**

 **Anyway, I still had a good time writing the part about Nick and Judy, and the next chapter will focus primarily if not exclusively on them. Next chapter probably won't have much in terms of investigating or the real furthering of the story line as I was planning on writing about one of their days off. We'll see how that goes.**

 **I do not have a regular schedule for completing chapters due to work and school. However, I will do my utmost to post them in a timely manner.**

 **As usual, I would love for you to leave a review and tell me what you think. Thank you for reading!**

 **Signing off,**

 **Erwin**

 **PS: the names of the 'gods' are just the Latin word for what they do or a character trait.**


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 4**

Smoke filled the car. Judy was having a hard time seeing what she was doing, and breathing was getting difficult. She looked wildly around and found Nick in the seat next to her. He was slumped over on the dashboard. She shook him, but he didn't move. Her yells went unanswered. The smoke was getting worse, and so was the heat. She realized she was still buckled in and reached down to push the latch button. The metal button was already hot, and she burned herself getting out from behind the belt. She reached over and tugged on Nick, but he just flopped to one side, limp as a rag. A look of pain mixed with surprise on his face. Judy wanted to scream, but she couldn't draw the breath in.

"Nick!" she squeaked.

She spasmed, coughing, trying to draw in air. The smoke was debilitating. She couldn't stay in the car any longer. Slowly, her body racked with coughing and grief, she found the door latch and tugged. She pushed it open and without thinking tumbled on to the ground.

Judy sat up in the bed with a sudden, panicked movement. If the light had been on and someone looking into her eyes they would have seen panic and fear. Sweat would have glistened on her grey fur. She looked around widely before remembering where she was and that it had been a dream. Then she looked over at the almost child-like form of the still-sleeping red fox tod curled up on his side beside her. Her sudden movement had disturbed his arm, which had been draped over her but hadn't woken him up. He stirred and mumbled something incomprehensible, readjusted himself onto his stomach, his face facing her. The panic died away, and her heart rate slowed. She breathed a quiet sigh of relief.

"You sly fox, I won't let anything happen to you. Not on my watch." She whispered to herself.

She laid back down and pulled the covers back up to her chin. She missed the reassuring weight of Nick's arm on her chest, but she didn't want to wake him up pulling it back over. She looked at her bedside clock. It said it was 3 A.M. The little light that indicated the alarm was set was not on, and she was just about to turn it on when she remembered they didn't have work tomorrow and let her arm fall back. She debated whether she should wake Nick and tell him about the dream she just had but decided against it. She would tell him in the morning while he was drinking his coffee.

She looked over at him. His face was so peaceful when he was asleep. The almost ever-present grin was replaced by a slack-jawed expression. One that, had he been awake, would have denoted slight surprise, maybe even consternation. Right now, however, it made him look peaceful. He let out a snore and smacked his lips, briefly showing glistening, long white teeth, red in the light cast by the digital clock. She let out a small laugh. He was so cute when he did that. She scooted over and gave him a kiss on his forehead, before closing her eyes and going back to sleep.

* * *

Judy woke at 6:30, unsurprisingly before Nick. Waking up early almost every morning for the last couple years had made it hard to sleep in, even on her off days. Nick, on the other hand, had somehow avoided this annoyance. Maybe it had something to do with his natural nocturnalness she thought. Being awake all day as a naturally nocturnal mammal was still not normal, and nigh unto impossible to get used to. No matter how long it had been and being up in the day always left him more tired than the average mammal.

She looked over at him. It was still dark in the room, but the sun's rays were just beginning to peek through the windows, illuminating him enough for her to see him. He was peacefully sleeping, still on his stomach. The fur on his right side was all matted from where he had fallen asleep with his arm draped over her.

Judy noticed that the room had gotten warm and stuffy. It was starting to get annoying. She tried to go back to sleep, but the combination of the warmth and the feeling that she was normally up at this time wouldn't let her.

So, she hopped out of bed, being careful not wake Nick. She grabbed her phone off her bedside table and turned its flashlight feature on. She shielded it with her hand, being careful not to shine it near Nick's face. It was at this time that she noticed she was only wearing her panties.

" _Weird, but whatever."_ She thought.

Obviously at some point during the night she had taken her bra off. Probably because of the heat, or maybe something else. She couldn't remember, not that she really cared. Judy walked over to the wall and using the light found the switch for the overhead fan. The breeze created by the spinning blades was a blessing. She shuddered as the wind dried her sweat and headed for the bathroom. She quietly closed the door and turned on the light.

She walked over to the sink and stared into it for a second. Then she looked up into the mirror set above it. The doe that looked back at her looked how she felt, tired and hot. Her sweat had plastered her fur flat against her body. She sighed. It had been a long couple of days, starting with a robbery at a gas station over on Tasman street, and culminating with the exciting events of yesterday.

However, underneath that fur, she could see her well-defined muscles, and her body felt in the best shape it had ever been. All that working out early in the morning had really paid off. Today though, she was going to relax. To begin this day, she decided she would take a long shower. For the first 20 minutes of it she just sat there, letting the hot water run over her, carrying away the sweat from the night. She was roused from her daydreaming when she absentmindedly grabbed the shampoo bottle and started pouring soap on her head. She decided this was a good time to finish up, so she washed herself and got out. She was now fully awake and beginning to feel like this was going to be a good day.

Judy finished getting ready for the day and noisily opened the bathroom door, singing to herself. She stopped dead when she realized the lights in the room were turned off. At first, she thought something was wrong, but then she remembered they had the day off and that Nick was still in bed asleep. Right then and there she decided that she was going to make him breakfast and bring it to him in bed, where she would join him. She'd have it ready by nine, which gave her about an hour and a half. Judy didn't want Nick sleeping the day away, after all, they did have people they had to visit. She quietly found herself another bra and panties, being careful not to wake Nick.

Judy was feeling great. She hummed a song to herself as she worked on their breakfasts. She enjoyed cooking, and the smell of frying eggs, cooking pancakes, brewing coffee and toasting toast seemed to add to her good feelings. She was almost done. Walking over to the cupboard, she took out two matching green plates, as well as her and Nick's mug. She distributed the food on to the plates. Judy like her eggs scrambled. The less runny the better. Nick though liked his sunny side up, something she found disgusting. They both liked blueberries on their pancakes.

With a flourish, she finished pouring the coffee. She picked up both plates and was about to go to their room when she saw Nick sitting at the table in his boxers. She gave a little start. She had not heard him come in.

"Well hello hot cakes!" he said, pointedly looking at her breasts.

"Sheesh, Nick! You scared me!" she exclaimed. Then in a little bit of a pouty voice added: "I was going to bring you breakfast in bed."

"Aww, I'm sorry Carrots." He said, his hand on his forehead. "It's just when I stopped feeling you beside me I woke up. Also, I think the AC here is broken. It was melting in there. You look absolutely delightful this morning."

Judy blushed, realizing she was still wearing only underwear but was still a little pouty when she answered. "Thanks. I woke up and was sweating because of the heat." She carefully put the plates down on the small table, then went and got their mugs.

"Looks good Jude!" Nick exclaimed. "Maybe I should have braved the heat and stayed in bed." He winked at her.

Judy smirked and sat down across from him. The table was so small that their plates touched each other in the middle. The first thing Judy did was tell him about the dream she had that night.

"Awww you should have woken me up! I would have made you feel much better."

"I don't know," Judy said. "I just didn't want to disturb you. You looked so peaceful laying there."  
Nick laughed. "Oh, Carrots. You are too cute."

Judy laughed too. The use of the "C" word had become normal in their household. Though she still got a little annoyed with him if he used it in public.

"So," She said "What are we going to do first today? We haven't had a Saturday/Sunday off in a while."

Nick took a sip of his coffee before answering in a thoughtful voice; "Well, we both promised we would visit out parents. So we have to do that. Maybe we can go to yours today and mine tomorrow."

Judy nodded, then said "Sounds good to me slick. Who you want to go to first?"  
"Hmm," Nick said. "How 'bout your place." He paused to scarf down some eggs. Judy gave him a look that said _slow down._

"Sorry Carrots." Nick grinned, wiping away yolk. Then he took another sip of coffee. "I also want to tell the apartment management that our AC seems to be out. _And_ I want to go get me some new glasses. I already miss those things." He said with a sigh.

"Ok slick sounds like a plan to me."

They finished their breakfast by 9:45. Nick was the first to finish getting dressed, donning his signature green shirt and red tie, along with brown slacks. Normally he would also wear his aviators too, but those had been destroyed. Much to his chagrin.

Nick decided to call management while Judy was still getting dressed. He learned that one of the units on the roof had gone out, leaving quite a few apartments without air. The man on the other end of the line apologized profusely and said that the new unit would be in late tomorrow afternoon.

Judy was just coming out of the bathroom when Nick hung up. Nick couldn't help but stare at her as she walked over. She had a way of dressing that almost always left Nick wondering how he was lucky enough to get such a beautiful wife. Even something as simple as a pair of jeans and a plaid shirt, like she wore now, seemed to highlight her good looks. She caught him staring and gave a little curtsy. He shook his head and cleared his through before saying;

"Well, we won't have any AC until late tomorrow. You wanna stay somewhere else tonight? I know of a nice little B&B on the outskirts of town near the train station. We can go there and reserve a room before we go to your folk's."

"Sure! Sounds like it'll be fun. I've never stayed at a bed and breakfast before."

"Wonderful. You'll like this place."

They finished cleaning up the remains of their breakfast, and Nick reminded Judy that their first stop was Greystone's Apparel so that he could get a new pair of aviators. The place didn't open for another 15 minutes so they decided to walk instead of taking a cab.

Greystone's was a semi-formal men's clothing store. The proprietor, a Mr. Barnaby Greystone, was a well-dressed grey fox. Mr. Greystone recognized Nick as soon as he walked through the door.

"Well hello there Mr. Wilde!" he called in his slight British accent. "What can I do for you today?"  
"I'm here for another pair of glasses Barnaby. My other ones got broken yesterday."  
Mr. Greystone looked at Nick with consternation.

"Another pair? Isn't that your 4th pair in two years?"

"I'm afraid it is Barnaby. Hazards of the job I guess."

"I would say so!" said Mr. Greystone as he walked over to a display case containing numerous high-end sunglasses and picked out a pair of silver framed aviators.

"Here is your pair sir. Do be more careful with these will you?"

"I'll try Barnaby, I'll try."

They walked over to the counter and Mr. Greystone rung Nick up. Judy gawked a little at the $350 price. How could anyone spend so much on sunglasses? Nick finished at the counter and immediately put on his new shades.

" _Classic Nick."_ Judy thought.

"Adios Barnaby! I'll see you later." Nick said as he and Judy walked to the door.

"You too sir! Take care of those glasses!" Mr. Greystone called after them as they left.

As soon as they were outside Judy said;

"Is that really your 5th pair? And have you paid $350 for each one?!"

"Woah now Carrots. Yes, this is my 5th, and yes, same price for all of them."

Judy made a 'humph' sound but dropped the subject.

"So, to the train station?" Judy asked.

"Yeup! Wanna walk? It's only a mile or two and we got all day."

"I don't see why not. I could use the exercise. I didn't work out this morning."  
Nick rolled his eyes.

The walk to the station took just over half an hour. The next train left at 11, which gave them 20 minutes to get to the B&B and get a room for the night. They got their tickets to Bunny Burrow and then walked the half block to the Bed and Breakfast. The building was an older brick building two stories tall and painted a tasteful green with black trim. A set of brick stairs lead up to the front door, which was flanked on both sides by gas lamp sconces. A black wooden sign with white letters hanging over the door proclaimed the name of the place; 'The Mile Stone Bed and Breakfast'.

"Looks like a cozy little place here." Said Judy. "How'd you hear about it?"

"Oh, back in my smuggling days. I spent a few nights here. Let's just say the owner is a little accommodating to folks like I was." Nick replied.

Judy wondered why he would have had to stay the night at a place like this. She didn't ask then though. She'd ask later when they were in bed. They quickly reserved a second story room. Nick checked his watch and saw that their train was about to leave. So, they quickly walked back to the station and mingled with the crowd waiting to board the train. Once on board, they quickly settled down in their compartment, of which they were the only occupants. Just as Judy got comfortable Nick decided to use her lap as a pillow, and within minutes was sound asleep. Judy sighed, and awkwardly pulled her phone out of her pocket. She put in some earbuds and quickly lost herself in thought staring out the window.

A little over two hours into the three-hour trip, Nick woke up. He sat up yawning and asked Judy how long it had been. Judy had nearly fallen asleep herself and had to check her watch. She wasn't too happy about being it, but she let it slide.

"So, Nick," she said. "Why did you have to spend the night in the B&B sometimes? Running from the law or something?"

"Ah durn it Carrots. I was hoping you'd have forgotten about that."

"Well, I didn't."

"Obviously." Nick rolled his eyes. "Hey, you did tell your parents we are coming today right?"

"Yes, Nick. You're trying to change the subject. Why did you stay at the B&B sometimes?"  
Nick sighed. "You have to promise not to tell anyone else ok? Not anyone anywhere."

"Ok Nick, I won't."

"Good. Well, the owner of the place, Mrs. Vallens had a daughter, still does." He chuckled. "Anyway, sometimes when me and Finnick were on the police's radar to strongly, we would go over there and tell Mrs. Vallens, who is a red fox like me, that we needed a place to stay for a day or two. She would give us a room down in the basement. Nothing fancy, just a couple twin beds and bare-bones bathroom. However, her daughter would always catch wind that we were there and would bring one of her friends, a fennec, with her to keep us company for the night. Well, I'm sure you can imagine how that went." He smiled at Judy, and Judy let out a small gasp. She could feel herself blush. She had never really thought about Nick's love life while he was a conmammal. It had just simply never occurred to her that he might have had one.

"That's part of the reason we always used that place." Nick continued. "The other parts were Mrs. Vallens was extremely trustworthy, and that the police never thought to look in a place that was so obvious, being practically right next to the train station. There, you happy Carrots?"

Judy was still a little shocked by the part about Mrs. Vallens daughter. So she asked "You don't still have feelings for her, do you? Mrs. Vallens daughter I mean. You don't think she'll come over tonight do you?" Judy felt slightly panicked. She wondered if it was still a good idea to stay there tonight.

Nick laughed. "Oh Judy, even if she did come over I wouldn't forsake my wife for her. I chose that place because I haven't seen Mrs. Vallens in a few years. I thought it would good to catch up on relations. Judy, I love you way too much to do something like that." He gave her a kiss on the top of her head. "You're the only one I've ever truly loved. I would never do anything to break that."

Judy felt a wave of relief wash over her. She hadn't quite realized how tense she had gotten until she un-tensed. She wrapped her arms around Nick and snuggled up to him. Nick returned the gesture, and they sat like that for a few minutes before Judy said;

"I thought you wouldn't. But sometimes whenever we are out I see how you look at vixens. It makes me jealous. Especially since we can't have kids. I sometimes get scared you might leave me for someone you can have kids with." She tensed a little again.

Nick was a little taken aback by this. The subject of kids had never come up in the little over a year that they had been married. Odd, now that he thought about it. He had noticed sometimes that Judy would look at him strangely, almost sorrowfully, but he had always just dismissed it as a trick of the light or something like that. Now he understood. He was glad no one else was in the cabin.

"Oh Judy," he cooed "Why didn't you ever tell me? I could have allayed any fears you had a long time ago. I am not ever going to leave you, especially not for something like that. If you want kids, we can adopt. Schrute, to be honest, I had never even thought about kids."

He kissed the top of her head again and then began stroking her ears. Something that he had learned was a very intimate gesture to a rabbit. He felt the tension go out of her body a second time. He sighed. He loved this bunny more than life itself. He wondered what he would do if anything ever happened to her.

The voice of the conductor came over the speakers, ruining the moment, and announcing that they would be at the station in about 5 minutes. Nick sighed, and they let go of each other and got ready to depart the train. They didn't have any baggage, as they had left the overnight bag containing a change of clothes for the both of them in the room at the B&B. They left their cabin and went to the waiting room style area beside the exit.

Nick could feel people looking at them. They were still well known from the Night Howler case, as well as for being the first of their kind in the police force and for being one of, if not the first, rabbit/fox couple. So far, the majority of folks they had met had expressed support or had been happy for them, but there were still the occasional few who did not like the idea of a fox and rabbit, predator and prey, being together.

The train arrived at the station. Nick and Judy stepped off to be immediately hugged by Judy's parents, Bonnie and Stu. Stu shook Nick's hand instead of hugging him. Judy barely got out a "Hey Guys!" before Bonnie smothered them with questions.

"We were so worried about you when we saw the news!" Bonnie said "We were afraid you had been killed or injured in the crash. Did the grey box get caught? Did anyone else get hurt? Any ideas what it could be?"

Nick always thought it funny how Judy's parents acted whenever something even remotely big happened in her life. This was no exception. He smiled as Judy gave him a 'Please help me' look.

"Hold on mom! Too many questions. How 'bout we save them for when we get home?" Judy said.

"Yes dear, how 'bout we wait till later. They just had a three-hour train ride, they must be a bit tired." Said Stu. Nick was a bit surprised that Stu wasn't as excited as his wife was. He usually was, but then again, he had gotten more controlled since him and Judy had gotten married.

"Right right." Said Bonnie. "Oh! I just noticed. Where is y'all's luggage? You're not planning on wearing the same clothes tomorrow, are you?"

"We aren't staying the night here mom. We are just going to stay till after supper."

Bonnie looked crestfallen, but Stu seemed to be expecting it.

"It's alright hon. We are just glad you came over."  
"Thanks, dad. We are going to visit Nick's mom tomorrow."

"Oh great! I'm sure she was just as worried as we were." Bonnie said, having quickly gotten over her disappointment. "Now let's hurry and get home. I know your siblings are itching to see you. I'm sure they will have lots of questions too!"  
Nick and Judy both groaned at the thought of Judy's siblings asking questions. The drive back to Judy's burrow was a bit uncomfortable with four mammals in a truck cab only designed for three, but thankfully it was only about 10 minutes or so. As soon as they got out they were surrounded by a hoard of little bunnies, all eagerly asking questions and just generally excited to see them.

"What was the grey box Uncle Nick?"  
"What was the thing sticking out of it? The thing that seemed to be in control?" asked another.

"Golly!" one simply exclaimed.

Nick couldn't help but laugh. Judy's siblings were all younger than her. She was the oldest of Bonnie and Stu's first litter. Nick couldn't imagine what it would be like to have this many siblings, or any for that matter. Judy was taking it all in stride. Only answering a few questions, and mostly just saying hey.

Nick patted one young bunny who came up to him on the head, then followed his wife and her parents into the burrow. On the outside, the burrow looked like a large hill, covered in grass, and with a tree growing off to one side. Set into the hill was a short wooden door with a round window in it.

The inside was very cozy, with hard packed earth floors, wooden paneling on the walls and ceilings, and a warm earthy smell that made one think of a greenhouse. Nick always liked coming here. The only thing he didn't like was the lack of windows. Most of the burrow spread out like in a honeycomb of tunnels and rooms beneath his feet, which meant there couldn't be any windows. The upper portion, the part built into the hill, contained the kitchen, a large living room, a large pantry, and Bonnie and Stu's room.

Stu had once told Nick that he had built most of this place himself, enlisting the help of his kids in making the warren of tunnels and rooms. The only things he needed outside help on he said was getting the wiring and plumbing set up. Nick had been dutifully impressed when he heard this. He could see where Judy got her amazing work ethic from. He wondered how much all that plumbing would have cost but had never asked.

The rest of the day went quite well. Nick and Judy were famished when they arrived, so Bonnie had started supper early, deciding they would eat a meal more akin to brunch in its timing. Bonnie had gotten Nick two large pieces of salmon that Stu had grilled, along with asparagus and some wonderful homemade bread. For everyone else, she had made some sort of carrot casserole instead of the fish. For dessert, they had blueberry cobbler and ice cream. At the end of it all Nick felt like a balloon.

It was a miracle, he thought, that they had enough food for all the rabbits. There were so many of them they had to break them up into different groups in different rooms, with Nick, Judy, her parents, and eight of her older siblings sitting on their own.

Afterwards, the group of them sat around and discussed the events of yesterday.

"So, do you have any idea where this thing came from? Or even what it is?" Stu asked Nick.

"No, not really. No one at the station does either. It appears though that the things running it aren't bad guys per se, or we probably would be dead now. If I had to guess I'd say they are just as confused about where they are as we are about what they are."  
Judy agreed saying "If they had been malevolent, then I have no doubt in my mind there would have been many casualties. As it stands, all that happened was two vehicles being lost and Nick getting a slight concussion."

One of Judy's siblings, Kathrine if Nick remembered right, asked what they were going to do to find the grey box. Neither Nick nor Judy knew, but they surmised that a large mammalhunt would be initiated. What they would do when they found them was yet to be figured out.

The rest of the evening went mostly well. Nick almost broke his glasses again when one of the little rabbits gave him a surprise tackle-hug as they were leaving. Bonnie and Stu both insisted on riding back with them to the train station. By the time they had boarded the train, it was nearly dark.

"Gee Carrots, it'll be almost 11:30 when we get back," Nick said as they got settled down in their cabin. There were even fewer people on the train on the trip back then when they came up, so they had no problem finding a cabin with no one in it.

The trip back was uneventful. No new revelations being brought forth by either of them. Instead, they simply cuddled together and watched a movie on Nicks iPear 6+'s massive screen. They were both pleasantly surprised when they were able to watch the whole thing and not fall asleep. The movie ended 20 minutes before they got back, so they contented themselves by making out. Trying to keep awake so they'd sleep better in bed.

When the train arrived, Nick decided that he would carry Judy off, new bride style, much to her surprise and delight. Nick carried her like that down the deserted sidewalk all the way to the B&B.

"Will we be able to get in?" Judy asked. "We are getting here kinda late."  
"Yes, my love. Mrs. Vallens gave me a key to the front door." Nick replied.

"Oh okay." Judy answered sleepily.

Nick set her down and unlocked the old wooden door, which squeaked as he pushed it in. Their room was the first room on the left after they climbed the stairs. It was painted a warm shade of beige with white trim and had a small living room, a bedroom, and a bathroom.

Judy immediately went to the bathroom to shower, not bothering to close the door. Nick found some snacks and munched on them while he waited for Judy to finish so he could shower. When they were done they climbed into the large, old-fashioned king-sized bed. Judy was asleep in minutes, but Nick stayed awake for a little while, fondly thinking about the events of the day and gazing at the sleeping form of his beautiful wife.

" _Maybe we should adopt."_ He thought before he fell asleep. _"I don't want her to be lonely if ever something should happen to me."_

* * *

 **Earlier that day**

Felix Chevre gazed at the rusted chain link fence from his bike. Just beyond a crazy tangle of bushes, vines, and trees, he could see the two-story bunker-like concrete structure. The road leading to it was covered in grass and tree saplings growing out from the innumerable cracks.

Felix hopped off his bike and quickly hid it in some brush, before nimbly climbing over the gate and dropping down on the road. It had been one of the biggest things on his bucket list to explore the old Zootopia Maximum Security Prison, and now here he was. The prison had been abandoned back in the 60s due to confirmed allegations of prisoner mistreatment much like the old psychiatric hospitals had been and had been calling for him to come explore it ever since he could remember.

The young goat set off at a brisk pace, not wanting to get caught by the police or a good neighbor. He quickly arrived at the inner gate. This one was a little harder to climb due to the barbed wire on top, but he was able to get over it without a problem. He passed a large concrete guard tower on his left, its sides covered in vines and briars. He would check that out later. Right now, he wanted to get in the main building.

Felix had heard from his friends, who had heard from some people that they knew, that there was a hole through both sets of main doors that had been made by some urban explore 20 years ago. This place wasn't explored too much. It creeped folks out to much. However, there were still numerous signs of urban explorers. Graffiti covered any exposed concrete, and the doors were partly caved in, barely any of the original battleship grey paint was left showing.

The hole in the outer door was rendered obsolete by the way the door was hanging on its hinges. Felix squeezed through the gap under the door and found himself in the ante-chamber of the entrance. Just inside the door was a puddle of water, made by water blown in under the door by those massive storms they had during the summer. By now his hoofs were orange from rust, so he used the puddle to rinse them off as best he could. The next set of doors was in better condition, which meant Felix had to use the hole in the middle of the door. He squeezed through that hole no problem.

It was pitch black. Felix couldn't see his hoof in front of his face. Thankfully he had brought a flashlight. Two actually. In case something happened to the other. He clicked one on, casting a wide beam of bright white light around the room. The room was large and had a concrete wall and ceiling that tapered into a dome 20 feet overhead. Directly in front of him was a hallway that was guarded by yet another steel door. This door still had its grey paint, it also had another large hole in it. On either side of him was another hallway with a door, though neither of those doors had a hole in them.

The guard's station was set in the bend of the wall between the right hall and the hall in front of him. It consisted of a waist-high concrete wall with five sides jutting out into the room. On top of that was a thick steel frame that rose another five or six feet before forming a flat concrete roof that connected back the wall. The frame was filled in by very thick glass that had wire mesh built in. The door to the station was open, so Felix decided to check it out.

It was surprisingly full. Inside he found a desk built into the wall with three old CRT computer monitors and the computers themselves. Snugged up against the desk were three office chairs. Two filing cabinets lined the far wall, their drawers pulled out and laying on the ground. Papers and other nick-knacks covered the desk and floor. Everything was covered in a thin film of sticky dust, and damp musty smell pervaded the whole area.

The room outside the guard station was otherwise empty, so Felix decided to check out the hall with the door that the hole in it. The hall on the other side ended at least 300 feet away, terminating in another door that with a sign above it that said "STATION" in big yellow letters. This door had a hole in it as well. He would check it out when he was done with this room.

Lining the hall for all the way down were jail cells, all with their doors open. ten feet above him he saw a wide catwalk that let access to yet more cells, its single set of stairs ascending from the other end of the room.

The cells on the ground floor proved to be rather boring. They all had a single bed bolted to the wall, with a thin rotting mattress on top, and a stainless-steel toilet in one corner. The only interesting thing he found was that in some of the cells the inmates had scratched their names and other words in the paint on the wall. Half of them were illegible due to water damage, but some he could still make out. Felix figured the ones on the second floor would be the same, but he decided to check them out anyway.

The metal stairs were definitely showing their age, but Felix figured they were still strong enough to hold him. Three-quarters of the way up though he heard a popping sound followed by the tinkling of something hitting the ground. He took another step. Two more popping sounds followed in quick succession, along with the stairs vibrating. Felix knew he didn't have much time. However, instead of going back down Felix rushed for the top. One step away the last bolt gave out.

Felix felt the drop. His stomach was suddenly in his mouth. He let out a screech and jumped, reaching out and barely grabbed a hold of the catwalk. He dangled there for a few seconds in a daze before being brought back to reality by more popping noises. Suddenly he was falling again. The last thing he saw was the edge of the catwalk just before it crashed down on him, killing him instantly.

 **Ok folks! Here is the next chapter. There are a few things I am changing from the movie, most notably the length of the train ride, and what type of cars the train consists of. I am placing Bunny Burrow much further away from the main city then it was in the movie.**

 **This chapter was a little harder to write, as I am not good at writing about people's personal lives I hope this was enjoyable. I would like to know what you thought about the first two parts. Did the dream part get you? Haha, probably not.**

 **The next chapter will be in a couple of parts. One part covering Nick and Judy's last day off, and the other part about Fuchs.**

 **The last part of this chapter does have a point, but you'll have to read the next chapter to see what it is.**

 **As always, I would love it if you left a review and a favorite or follow. Thank you for reading!**

 **Signing off,**

 **Erwin.**

 **P.S I am terrible at writing romance if you get what I mean, so, for the most part, I will be leaving it up to your imaginations.**


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 5**

Nick awoke to a heavy feeling on his chest. It felt like a large sack of something. Without opening his eyes, he began to push the object off. Then he noticed that it was warm and covered with fur. He smiled when he figured out what it was. Judy had moved around in her sleep and ended up with her head on his chest. He stroked her ears, eliciting a coo from Judy. There was no clock on his bedside table but judging by how hard the sun was trying to get through the curtains on the window he guessed that it was nearing 10:30 or 11. He checked his phone. Yup. 10:55.

" _Amazing."_ He thought. As far as he could remember, Judy had only ever slept in this late on their honeymoon, and then only twice.

He was reluctant to wake her, but the weight of her head and shoulders were beginning to hurt. That, and he was a little hungry. However, he did try his best to get out of bed without waking her up. He gently picked lifted her head of his chest and tried moving it to the pillow. It didn't work. Judy woke almost instantly.

"Well hello there sleepy head. Welcome to the world." Nick said

Judy sat up, using her elbows to prop herself up in Nick's stomach, and rubbed her eyes. Nick flinched as her pointy elbows dug into his gut.

"Watch it Carrots! That's some sensitive stuff down there." Nick said with a look of concern.

Judy just looked at him, confusion written on her face. She looked around the room. Then she remembered where they were, and comprehension replaced the confusion. She sat up to where she was resting on her bottom instead of Nick's stomach.

"I see you just remembered where we are." Nick said chuckling.

"Yeah." She paused when she noticed the light trying to get through the curtains. "Goodness, what time is it?"

"It's 11 o'clock. You haven't slept in this late since our honeymoon. And that one time you were sick." He chuckled again. "You hungry? They stopped serving breakfast at 10, but we can go somewhere. Splurge a little."  
"Sounds good to me. We gonna check out when we leave?"

"Yeah, I only paid for one night. We should have AC back at the apartment by the time we get done with being out and about."

"Ok. I gotta take a shower."

"Since when have you takin a shower before you go to bed and after you get up?" Nick asked with slight surprise in his voice. Then he laughed. _"My, these last few days must have gotten to her."_

"Since today slick. And why are you laughing?"

"Oh, nothing Carrots. Just thinking of something."  
Judy harrumphed, the climbed out of bed. She rummaged around in the overnight bag and pulled out her change of clothes for the day, then went into the bathroom without closing the door again and started the shower.

Nick laid in bed for a little longer, listening to Judy hum to herself in the shower. Then he pushed back the heavy quilt and climbed out of bed. He walked over to the window and pulled back the currents, letting the full might of the sun shine through to illuminate the room in a soft yellow/white light.

" _That's better."_ He thought.

He went over to his pack and pulled out his clothes. Nick wasn't going to shower, so he went ahead and got dressed. Then he went to the bathroom to brush his teeth. Then he got an idea. He went back into the bedroom and took one of the larger cups that housekeeping left on the desk and filled it with cold water from the sink.

Very quietly he walked over to the shower curtain.

"It's to quiet out there Nick! What are you doing?" Judy called just before Nick dumped the water over the curtain. Judy let out a scream and yelled;

"You'll pay for that Slick!"

Nick couldn't stop laughing. "You know you love me Carrots!" He said when he got control of his laughter.

Judy harrumphed again, but Nick could practically hear the smile she wore when she said "I do love you, you sly fox. You got me good that time."

Nick laughed again, then finished getting ready for the day. Judy was done showering by the time he finished. She quickly got dressed and brushed her teeth and fur.

"So, where you wanna eat?" she asked.

"Hmmmm. I was thinking about that little Italian deli down on 30th street. It's like, two blocks from here."  
"You mean Silvestri's? I love that place! They have an excellent club sandwich for herbivores."

"You've been there? I can't say that I ever have."

"You'll like it. They have good carnivore options too."

Nick nodded. They finished packing the few items they had brought with them, then walked down to the check-in desk. A red fox who looked to be somewhere in her 60s was behind the counter.

"Good morning Nicky! How's it goin' for ya? Haven't seen ya in a while, before yesterday that is. Is that the good Judy Hopps I see with you? Or should I say Judy Wilde?" Mrs. Vallens said with a grin.

"Mornin' Mrs. Vallens! Yeup! This is my wife." Judy waved but didn't say anything. "You already know her name. We are both cops, but I'm sure you knew that already too." Nick said.

"I sure did. I never could see you as a cop, Nick. My, my, how times have changed."  
"Yes, ma'am. Well, we should be on our way. It was good talking to you again. Maybe we should meet somewhere and catch up eh?"

"You know where to reach me, Nicky." Mrs. Vallens said, before turning her attention to a couple that had just walked through the door. "How can I help y'all today?" Nick heard her say as he and Judy walked out the door.

"Mrs. Vallens is a bit loud," Judy said when the door closed.

Nick laughed. "Yeah, she's always been like that. You could hear her talking on the phone from the basement. Those old floorboards aren't exactly soundproof."

Judy didn't reply. Nick felt her arm tighten around his waist. He looked at her.

"You ok Carrots?"  
"Yeah. Just enjoying being with you, that's all."  
Nick responded by dropping the bag and picking her up. Judy let out a little yelp before Nick gave her a long kiss. For her part, Judy recovered from her surprise quickly, rolled with it perfectly. The moment lasted only a few seconds, but it left both of them feeling like they didn't have a care in the world.

"Let's go get that club you were talking about," Nick said after he put her down.

The walk to the restaurant took the better part of 30 minutes but was completely uneventful. Silvestri's was a less than 20-year-old business squeezed into an old alleyway that had been converted into a long, narrow building. It was barely ten feet wide. On one side was the 1st National Bank of Zootopia, its once naturally pink granite pillars and walls blackened and greyed by decades of car exhaust. On the other side was a much newer establishment that catered to the still fairly new trend that had caught hold only a few years ago called vaping. Silvestri's was stuck right between the old and the new. And it was thriving.

From outside, the duo could see that at least half the tables inside were taken and that three out of four spots on the sidewalk were also takin.

"Wanna eat out here Carrots?" Nick asked as he walked up to the free table.

"Sure." She said, pulling out a chair and sitting down.

A waiter walked over and asked what they would like. Judy got the club with a fruit juice, and Nick got a spicy grilled chicken sandwich with all the fixings and a sweet tea.

"This is a good place Carrots," Nick said between bites of his sandwich.

Judy agreed.

They sat for a couple minutes in thought. Then Nick said;

"So about yesterday… I have a question."

A slightly worried look came into Judy's eyes. A look Nick knew only came around when she was unsure of herself. He smiled,

"Don't worry, it's not bad. It's about adoption."

Judy's worried look went away, to be replaced instantly by a look of curiosity.

"Yesterday got me thinking. You know that we can't have kids, at least not without that expensive operation they offer."

"We could save up for it!" Judy interrupted.

"Hahaha yeah, but it would take too long. Unless we get some sort of salary boost. Anyway, what I was wondering is do you want kids? Would you like to adopt?"

Judy didn't answer right away. She sat fiddling with her drink and thinking. Both their sandwiches had been finished a little while ago and the waiter had left the bill on the table.

"Well, I do want kids… But I was thinking about getting them in a slightly different way."  
"What do you mean?" Nick asked, his eyes sparkling with curiosity. This was not quite the answer he had been expecting.

Judy fidgeted in her seat. Clearly, she hadn't been expecting this to come up today.

"Have you ever heard of artificial insemination?" She rapidly asked.

Nick nearly choked on his drink. That question came completely out of left field.

"Good grief," he sputtered, recovering from swallowing his drink wrong. "I never thought I'd ever hear you say that."

Judy was clearly very anxious. To allay her fears, Nick quickly added;

"I ain't mad Judy. I have no reason to be." He chuckled. "It's just, I was so not expecting that. So, are you saying that's what you want?"

Judy had regained most of her normal confidence; however, she still looked a little nervous when she said "Well, I want to raise them from the womb. Adopting is wonderful, it really is, it's just not the same as when you put all the time and energy into actually helping the development of the child."

"You know, if that's how you feel, then why don't we try out the new procedure they have? The one that allows different species to have kids together."

"But that's like 40 grand!" Judy said.

"50 grand actually. And so? I'm willing to sacrifice some luxuries to save up for it. Especially if it means you will be happy. I mean, shoot, the idea of having a son has been growing on me lately. Getting the money shouldn't take more than a year or two for the down payment plus a little extra maybe."

"Umm, let me think about it. What do you think the others at the station would think?"

"It doesn't matter what they think. But if I had to guess, I'd say most if not all of them would be happy for us. Including buffalo butt." Nick said grinning. "My answer is yes, but I won't be mad if you say no though, just a little disappointed."

Judy stared thoughtfully into the dregs of her drink. "I'll let you know by tomorrow morning."  
"No rush Carrots. We should go by the docs anyway and learn a little more about it before we do anything irreversible, like the down payment."

Nick pulled out his wallet and took out a 20 and 10, more than enough for the meal, and put them in the little book the waiter had brought out. Then he stood up and said;

"Come on fluff. Let's go visit me ole mum eh?" he said the last part in a not very good Scottish accent.

"Ok slick, let' go," Judy replied in an equally bad impersonation of an old-time gangster.

Together they flagged down a cab.

"246 West Brazee Street," Nick told the driver, who simply grunted his acknowledgment and started the ticker.

The inside of the cab smelled of stale cigarettes and unwashed bodies. _"Of all the cabs to get, it had to be this one."_ thought Nick. He decided to keep their overnight bag on his lap. He didn't want to put it on the floor. There was no telling what kind of dirt was there.

Nick and Judy didn't want to talk much with the driver able to hear, so instead, they sat and watched out the windows. It was at a stoplight that Nick noticed something a bit odd. Standing on the curb on their side of the road looking right at him was a tall light grey wolf wearing a black business suit and an old-fashioned hat. He was carrying a briefcase and his right hand was in his pants pocket.

Nick was about to point it out to Judy when the light turned green and the cab moved forward. The wolf must have noticed that Nick had spotted him, for as soon as the light turned green he turned and disappeared into the crowd that was about to cross the sidewalk.

Nick's instincts told him that something was up, but what it could be he had no idea. The rest of the ride was uneventful, and Nick quickly forgot about the wolf in the suit when they reached his mother's apartment. Nick paid the driver, grabbed the bag, and he and Judy quickly exited the smelly vehicle.

* * *

Nuntius watched from within the crowd as the cab sped off down the road. He knew who the two in the back were. He had figured out what had happened two days before by a mix of using some of his powers and posing as a journalist for the _Dailey Herald_ , Zootopia's main newspaper. Nuntius knew from reading their fate that he had not seen the last of them, and not in a bad way.

Nuntius was not very good at reading fate. Fate was like a radio signal. It emanated from each being of any planet and any species, telling what their future was for presumably the rest of that being's existence. It took a lot of experience to learn how to pick up on it well. The best fate reader, Videaris, was only able to interpret it six months out and not extremely accurately either. Nuntius was the least able to read the signal of fate of the crafters. He could only do it a couple days out, and the reading was usually fuzzy at best and it always left him sluggish and tired feeling after he did it for any length of time. It wasn't like it was very important to his job though. He was just a messenger of sorts after all. He wondered if any of the crafters would learn how to read a fate to its end. Maybe one day.

Fate, he mused, was a byproduct of the acts of creation that the crafters had done. It was something that somehow came attached to everything, no matter what the crafters had tried in order to get rid of it. Eventually they had just accepted it and learned how to use it for their benefit. Nuntius had used his limited ability to interpret it numerous times in his long life.

Nuntius crossed the road without really noticing it. He was busy thinking about how he was going to tell a certain group of humans why they had been yanked from their world and deposited here in hellishly burned bodies and a tank that replenished its ammunition on its own. Nuntius liked to be a little dramatic sometimes, especially on the occasions he had to break important news to someone. It always made the receiver more attentive if he made a dramatic entrance.

By the time he had figured out what he was going to do, he had walked at least four or five blocks, barely noticing the passage of time and distance. He stopped in front of a coffee shop. "Grizzly Greg's Coffee" a sign above the door proclaimed. Nuntius realized that his feet hurt and that a coffee sounded mighty good just then and decided he would get one.

The inside of the shop was brightly lit by a combination of recessed lighting and the sun streaming through the two large plate glass windows that looked out onto the street. The walls were painted a dark forest green that was nicely accentuated by a dark hardwood floor and brown crown molding.

Standing behind the counter was a massive grizzly bear. Nuntius figured this was Greg, the owner.

"Welcome to Grizzly Greg's!" The bear thundered good-naturedly as soon as Nuntius was through the door. "What can I do for you this fine day?"

Nuntius walked up the counter and pretended to study the menu written on a black chalkboard on the wall behind the bear.

"Hmmmm. I think I'll stick with a plain jane cup of joe today. Medium, please. No cream."

"Simple enough!" Boomed the bear ringing up the $2.79 drink. Nuntius wondered if he always talked like this or if he only did it to customers. It wasn't exactly yelling, but it wasn't normal talking voice either. Either way, it could get annoying fast, he thought. He paid the bill and walked to the other end of the counter. A few minutes later Greg brought him his drink.

Nuntius chose a table by one of the windows and sat down, sticking his feet out to take all pressure off them. He went over the plan in his head.

He knew where the crew was, thanks to his detective work and a little use of his unique ability that he termed 'eyeballing' where he literally ejected one of his eyes from his head and used it like a flying camera. This way he had been able to follow the road the tank crew had used. He almost missed the turn off that lead to the tunnel, but some freshly turned dirt had caught his eyes attention.

Nuntius realized that the crew was in a spot where they could easily be trapped, and he was going to use this to his advantage. He used the thought gel to get in contact with Tempesta, the creator of the weather systems for the planets they made, and after a little haggling, he was able to get a storm that covered all of Zootopia plus 15 kilometers around it scheduled for that night.

This he had arranged to cause a landslide to keep the crew in the tunnel the next morning, for he knew that they were planning on leaving when the sun rose. Next, he was going to invisibly walk past them so that he could come up from behind them. To make his appearance to them even more dramatic he would slowly walk up on them, keeping himself hidden by a light he would emanate from his hand until he was quite close.

Nuntius sipped his coffee. He liked this plan. It wasn't as cool as some of the other ones he had made, like when he had warned Napoleon of the Allies intentions at the Battle of Austerlitz, but it was still a good one. He still had some hours to kill until the show as he termed it started. He wasn't sure what to do, so he just sat and sipped his coffee, enjoying the warmth of the sun through the windows.

* * *

Nick's mother's house was in a suburb on the outskirts of town, only a scant 20 minutes ride from Nick and Judy's apartment. It was a simple house, one story, 3 bedrooms, a bathroom and a half. The walls were covered in beige vinyl, and there was a simple but well-kept garden in front with a small lawn surrounded by a hedge. Every other house was pretty much the same, with only slight variations in color and design.

Mrs. Wilde had moved into this house only three years ago. Before that, she had been living in the farmhouse that Nick had been born in. She still would be if it wasn't for the possibility of something happening that would require a speedy trip to the hospital.

Nick's dad had died when he was just five years old, just barely old enough to remember him. For the longest time, his mom wouldn't tell him how he had died, until one day, on his 13th birthday she handed him a newspaper clipping.

The clipping was yellow and brittle with age. Nick remembered having to carefully unfold it to see what it said. The article it featured was about a killing that had taken place at dusk one evening eight years before. Nick caught on very quickly. He remembered that as he read his hands began to shake, and he had to stop several times to collect himself. He had been glad there was no one but his mom around.

Mr. Wilde had been driving home late one night after visiting a friend's house to watch his favorite football team, the North Zootopia Highballers, beat the neighboring city of Hillsborough 56 to 42. He had stopped at a gas station to fill up and had walked inside to get a quick snack.

Another car pulled in to the station about that time, and two thugs had gotten out. Both wearing ski masks and carrying shotguns. They had rushed inside and without warning blew a hole in Nick's father's chest. They also decimated the attendant.

To this day, it is still not known who the masked mammals were, or what they were after, especially considering that it appeared nothing was missing from the store. Security footage that Nick was able to look over once he joined the force showed that the mammals had left right after killing his father and the attendant. The getaway vehicle was later found in a river outside of town. It had been stolen less than 24 hours before the killing.

The sudden remembrance of this and other memories caused Nick to let out a heavy sigh. There were still some things that he had not told Judy, and the killing of his father was one. The sigh caused Judy to look at him and ask;

"You ok Nick? Not getting sick, are you?"  
Nick smiled "No Carrots. Just recalling old memories. Let's go knock on the door, shall we? I see that her car is here."

Mrs. Wilde answered the door within seconds of Nick's knocking. She had, after all, been expecting them.

"Hi, mom. How you doin?" Nick asked. It had been a couple weeks since Nick had visited, so he had some catching up to do.

"Hi, Nick. Hello Judy. Do Come in." Mrs. Wilde said in a smooth voice that sounded like it belonged to someone 20 years her junior. "I'll get you a cup of coffee Nick and answer your question when we get comfortable. Oh don't worry Nicky." She said at Nick's inquisitive look. "Nothing important has happened. I just want to save it all for when we are sitting down." She turned to Judy. "Would you like anything to drink my dear?"

"Um, no ma'am. Thank you though."

"Alright, dearie." She said, before turning and walking to the kitchen. Nick and Judy sat down on the living room sofa, Nick carefully placing his shades on the coffee table.

To Judy, Nick's mother moved with a grace that seemed to defy her age. Her movements were smooth and quiet, the only sound she made was that of the rustling of her ever-present light pink knitted shawl. Not even the click of her claws on the hardwood floors.

Every time Judy had seen Mrs. Wilde she had been dressed like she had just gotten home from church. It didn't take long for her to realize that Mrs. Wilde was an old soul, and not just in reference to her actual age. Her house was decorated with old-fashioned lamps on equally old but still tasteful furniture. On the wall of the living room were pictures of her and Mr. Wilde taken, she had been told, every year after their marriage and hung in chronological order. Nick showed up in the 5th picture. Mr. Wilde disappeared from them after the 10th. Judy knew that this was because he had died in an accident. What type of accident though she'd never been told.

Elsewhere throughout the house were paintings of farmlands and sailing ships and more family portraits. A slight smell of lavender permeated everywhere. Judy had never been to the house Nick was born in and she had always wondered what his room had been like. She had asked once, but Nick had given a pretty bland description of it.

Judy's thoughts were interrupted when Mrs. Wilde came into the living room carrying a mug of coffee for Nick in one hand and what Judy new was earl grey tea in a mug in the other hand. She set the two mugs down on the table and sat down in an old-fashioned easy chair in front of them.

"So. How's it going for my favorite pair of police? I saw the news the other day. Seems like you had one big adventure that day."  
"Yeup. That was a weird day." Nick said. "Thankfully no one got seriously injured, but I did break my glasses again."

Mrs. Wilde tried to look stern, but it came across as bad acting "My my Nick. Wasn't that your fourth pair?"

Nick chuckled and said "Yeah. I went to the store yesterday to get another pair and Mr. Greystone looked like I was taking one of his children, never to be seen again."

Mrs. Wilde laughed this time. "I always liked Barnaby. He knows how to take care of things. Speaking of things, what are they going to do with those two police vehicles? It looked like one was possibly repairable."  
"I don't know honestly. One of them got mostly crushed, so that's going to the junkyard. But the one we were driving looks like they could repair it though knowing them they'll probably just use it for spare parts."

Nick's mother nodded and took a sip of her tea before turning to Judy "How about you dear? How have you and Nick been these last couple of weeks?"

Judy took a minute to answer. "Well, not much. The beginning of this week started with a little excitement though. We got a call to go to a robbery at a gas station out on Tasman street, but other than that and the grey box not much happened. Oh! I almost forgot. Your son here dumped cold water all over me this morning while I took my shower! You should punish him." Judy said, playfully punching Nick in the shoulder.  
Mrs. Wilde laughed while Nick feigned a hurt expression.

"I see you still have your energetic, dare I say _Wilde,_ side about you." She turned to Nick "Did I ever tell you how lucky you were to find her?"

"Oh yes, many times," Nick replied as he put his arm around his wife. "I'd prolly still be on the streets if it wasn't for her."

Judy blushed. Attention always made her blush, even when she was with people as close as these two.

"You know Nick, I was thinking. Why don't you two stay for supper? I have your favorite meatloaf and veggies all ready to go. Just have to pop them in the oven."

"Sounds good to me Carrots. What do you say?"  
"Oh and I almost forgot. I went to the market today and got a bunch of fresh produce. I could make you your salad Judy."

"Ok. You always make the best salads. Especially those blueberry and lemon zest. Mmhmm." Judy said.

The next couple hours went by quickly. Nick showed Judy pictures from a family album, and he and his mom took turns telling some of the stories that went with the pictures. Before they knew it, it was time for supper.

Midway through the meal, it began to rain. At first, it was just a light rain, but it quickly grew into a full-fledged storm. Lightning flashed every few minutes, to be followed by deafening thunder. Nick looked worried. They had taken the cab to get here and had no way of getting back to their apartment. Mrs. Wilde saw the look and guess correctly what it meant.

"You can use my car tonight. I won't need it anytime soon. Especially since most of the places I go are within walking distance."  
"Thank you mom." Nick said with relief. "I was wondering how we were going to get home. We can bring it back for you tomorrow."

"There's no rush dear. Just bring it back when you can."

"I will mom, don't worry."

The storm was still raging when they finally decided it was time to go. Just before they left Mrs. Wilde gave both Nick and Judy a raincoat and an umbrella, along with the keys to the car. Judy's raincoat was much too big for her. It swallowed her up like a cave. Nick laughed when he saw her.

"You look like a monster fluff!" he said.  
"Oh shut it slick." She replied.

At the door, Nick turned and gave his mom a hug. "Thanks, mom for the meal. It was wonderful. Even more thanks for the car. I don't know what we'd do without it."  
"You're welcome, Nicky. I'm glad you stopped over. It gets lonely sometimes living on your own. Every night I lay in bed and think how grateful I am that you found someone to spend your life with. It makes things a little easier on me."  
Mrs. Wilde turned to Judy and said "And you young lady. Nick is very blessed to have you and you are always welcome at this house, even if Nick isn't with you."  
Nick and Judy finished their goodbyes and made a dash for the car, which was not parked in the garage. Judy nearly fell as they ran, getting tripped up with the too big coat.

"It was nice of your mom to lend us her car." Judy said once they were situated inside the vehicle."  
"Yeah." Nick agreed. "She's had this car forever. I remember when she got it like 15 years ago."  
"well dang. It's in good shape for that old." Judy said, looking around at the near immaculate interior.

"Yeah. She takes good care of her stuff."  
Nick backed out of the drive, going very slowly. The rain and dark made it quite difficult to see out the windshield and Nick dared not go much above 30 miles an hour, even with basically no one else on the roads.

"Man, this is worse than that storm we had a few days ago. Thursday, I think it was." Nick remarked.

"You're right." Judy said. Then she went quite before saying "Hey, didn't that storm happen the night before we encountered the grey box?"  
"Yeah, what are you implying? That they're somehow connected?"  
"Well, sort of. I'm mostly just thinking how cool it would be if something happened like from the movies."

"Well, that might not be as farfetched as you think." Nick said. "Let's keep an eye out for anything suspicious after the storm."

Judy laughed. They were almost home when Nick saw someone on the sidewalk.

"What in the world is someone doing out in the weather?" He asked Judy. Judy looked out the window but couldn't see anything.  
"What do you mean?" She asked. I don't see anyone."  
"Right there, see him?" Nick asked as he pulled off the road and stopped in a parking spot so as to get a better look. He looked harder at the mammal, who was sitting under a bus stop. There was something oddly familiar about him, but Nick couldn't place it.

"Oh, I see him now." Said Judy. "What is he doing? Think we should ask him?"

"Not really. He's prolly out for a reason. Plus, I don't want to risk anything."  
The mammal in the bus stop wore a black business suit. Nick recalled the wolf he had seen earlier. However, this was not a wolf but a jaguar, and he wasn't wearing a hat. There was also something more sinister about him. His suit was more professional looking, almost like a suit worn by those CIA guys in the movies Nick thought.

The jaguar was looking at something in his hand but seemed to have heard Nick pull up because he looked up and stared at them. Nick shuddered. It was as if the mammal was reading something. Something that came from Nick.

The jaguar stared at them for a couple more minutes before walking out of the bus stop and heading down the sidewalk without bothering with an umbrella. Nick caught a final glimpse of him as he passed under the light from a street lamp right before he turned a corner.

"Think we should follow him?" asked Judy.

Nick looked at his watch. It said it was only 15 minutes till 10.

"I guess we can for a little bit. No longer than 10 though. I'm getting tired."  
Nick eased the car out of the parking spot, making certain there was no one coming up behind him. He made his way down the road until he came to where the mysterious cat had turned. The sign said the road was East 30th street. Nick slowly turned onto the street, their headlights lighting up closed storefronts and other businesses as they passed.

"There he is!" Judy exclaimed.

Nick quickly hit the brakes and looked at where she was pointing. The rain made it hard to see, and Nick was surprised Judy had noticed him, but there he was, standing in the doorway of a closed shop and barely illuminated by the car's lights.

"We should definitely see what he is doing." Judy said.

"But we aren't on duty Carrots! We don't have any of our gear and for all we know that man could be armed. I don't think it's a good idea." Nick said as he realized they were still stopped in the middle of the road. He quickly put the car in a parking spot.

"Yeah but maybe he's in trouble!" Judy said as Nick found a spot and doused the lights.  
"Yeah, but it's more likely he's just a weirdo. No tellin what he'd do."  
Judy sighed. "Yeah, I guess your right…We should head on home now. A shower sounds really good."  
"Heavens Carrots! That would be your second one today."

"Yeup!"

Nick flipped on the lights and let out a yell that caused Judy to jump in her seat. There, standing right in front of them, was the black-suited jaguar. Water dripped from his muzzle, which sported a wicked looking grin.

The jaguar just stood there, preventing them from leaving. Nick was about to get out of the car and see what he wanted when he turned around and walked away. Oddly enough most of the street lamps on the street were out, which meant that the darkness quickly swallowed the receding figure.

"Holy crap Carrots! What the heck was that?"  
Judy looked as if she had just seen a ghost, which wasn't too far-fetched a possibility Nick thought.

"I don't know, but now I think we should definitely go home." She said. Nick heartily agreed.

The rest of the ride home was spent scanning the sidewalks and benches for mysterious mammals. Thankfully, they didn't see any. Their apartment didn't have a parking garage, so Nick had to drive half a block past it to park in a public garage. This was going to cost a little, but it was worth it.  
The walk back was brief and for the most part, they were able to keep dry. Judy's cavernous jacket kept her dryer than Nick's did him. His let a small rivulet of water drip down the back of his neck, despite the hood. _"Must be a hole."_ He thought.

When they unlocked their apartment door they were greeted with a rush of cold air.  
"Well! The AC works now. Thank the lord." Nick said letting out a small shiver.

Nick and Judy quickly got ready for bed, Judy did not take her shower. Being in their own bed felt wonderful, and they were soon snuggled up and succumbing to the sand man's powers.

 **Ok folks. Here is chapter 5. Man, this chapter was probably the hardest to write, and yet it was also the easiest. The part where they visited Nick's mother took me forever. I'll go ahead and apology for it's less than ideal content.**

 **The other parts though were actually quite fun to write. There are two parts in this chapter that have given me good ideas for other possible stories. Maybe you can figure which parts they are. One is easy to spot, but the other might be a bit trickier. Let me know if you think you've spotted both. There is another that has a much smaller chance of becoming a story. It comes right before the first potential story.**

 **Anyway, I would love for you to leave a review, even if you didn't spot the potential new story plots. Let me know what you think of my personal life writing skills.**

 **Thanks again!**

 **Signing off,**

 **Erwin.**


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 6**

Fuchs woke up in pitch black with a strange cottony feeling behind his eyes. It took him a second to remember where he was, but as soon as he did the blackness and the cottony feeling went away. To be replaced by that eerie green glow of his new night vision.

Sometime during his sleep, Fuchs had slid down the wall until most of him was lying flat on the ground, his head being the only thing still propped up against the wall. He pushed himself up, gingerly straightening out his neck.

" _Scheissa,"_ he thought as his sore neck let out a few pops in protest. The rest of his body ached as well. Sleeping on a hard and damp concrete surface wasn't exactly comfortable. His uniform stuck to him like a wet blanket, which it essentially was. He cursed again before looking at his watch. The timepiece caused him to do a double take. It said it was 4:50, three days after he went to sleep. Whether it was morning or afternoon though he couldn't be certain. He knew that it was extremely unusual to sleep that long, but he was beyond caring. Everything since the cathedral raid was unusual.

He looked around at his surroundings. He was in a small concrete room. The walls of which wept moisture, with rivulets that had been streaming down for years etching brown mold encrusted channels in the walls. The air stank of mildew and stale water. Not something Fuchs would normally have liked, but for some reason that he couldn't quite put his finger on, the smell was comforting. It almost reminded him of death. Maybe he was dead. That would make the most sense out of all this nonsense, he thought.

He stood up. His skin felt tight, but after a few quick exercises it loosened up. He remembered that he had come through a door that lead from a subway tunnel and something about a prison. Ah yes. Zootopia Maximum Security Prison. Or something along those lines.

" _Where is that?"_ he thought again.

Oh well, it didn't matter. There was nothing he could do about it now anyway. Fuchs looked at the door that lead out of the ante-chamber and into presumably the rest of the prison. Beside it was a glass panel about 1 meter by 50 centimeters and directly below that was what appeared to be an intercom box. He could barely see through the dirty glass, but on the other side, he spotted a rotten fabric covered chair that had no armrests. There was also a weird beige colored box like thing sitting on the desk. The front of the box was bigger than the rear. To the left of this, he could barely make out a strange ovoid object with a cord running out of it. The cord disappeared into a small hole in the back of the desk. This baffled him. He looked to the right and saw another steel door that led into the window room, however, this one was already open, letting in a stream of extremely faint light.

He went to the second steel door in the antechamber and tried to open it, but it was locked.

" _Figures._ " He thought.

Fuchs went back out the door he had originally come through. He was looking for something to break the window with. He had no luck finding something on the platform, so he hopped down onto the tracks. After easily 15 to 20 minutes of looking, he finally found a piece of broken rod underneath the subway care. It looked to be a piece of the undercarriage, about four centimeters in diameter and a meter in length with a hole drilled through one end and easily weighing three kilos. He hefted the steel rod. It felt relatively balanced and would make for a good weapon if needed. Fuchs climbed back up on the platform and went inside the chamber and up to the window. This time he noticed that it had wire mesh built into it. He wondered if this would be a problem.

Fuchs backed up and swung the steel bar with all his might at the window causing a hollow sounding _"Thwack"_ followed by the crinkling of cracking glass. He sat and listened the glass cracking and messaged his now aching wrists. The glass sounded like the ice that hung from trees starting to melt at the end of a long winter. Eventually, the crackling slowed down, and Fuchs saw that the window would require another hit.

The second hit produced much the same result, however, there was now a hole as big as his fist. A few more hits and he had knocked or bent the glass until he could fit his body through it. He threw the bar into the room, careful not to hit the beige box on the table and crawled in after it.

The Room was very small, barely big enough for two people. Fuchs was not a big fan of small spaces. He normally hated them. Yet, for the same inexplicable reason that he liked the smell of the room and the acquisition of his new night vision, he was no longer afraid of small spaces. In fact, he was starting to like them. He examined the box on the table. It had a large glass screen, like a T.V.

" _Maybe that's what it is."_ He thought.

He looked at the ovoid thing with the cord running out of it. The cord ran into a hole in the back of the desk and connected to a rectangular tower like box underneath. The box had a big Z with a C overlaid on top engraved on its side. Fuchs was fascinated, but he wanted to keep exploring.

He heaved the door open the rest of the way and found himself in a small hallway that lead straight to a flight of ten steps. Fuchs always counted steps. The steps went up for five more flights before depositing him in front of another metal door. The door was different though. At the bottom of it was a large hole. The hole had clearly been cut with a welding torch. He could still see the scorch marks. Still, he tried the door and found it locked.

Fuchs bent down and examined the opening. Wafting out of it was a smell that was obviously something other than just 'old building smell'. It was like someone had left a piece of steak out in the sun for too long. Fuchs was pretty sure he recognized it, but he wanted to make sure before he came to any sudden conclusions. The hole looked just big enough for him to fit, but only if he took off his tunic and boots. He sighed and began unbuttoning the garment. Upon getting it off he carefully folded it up and slipped it through the hole, laying it on the ground next to it. Next, he took off his boots and pants. He wasn't taking any chances with ripage, not when he didn't know when he could get a new uniform. This was the first time he had really been able to examine himself since he had gotten here, and what he found disturbed and fascinated him at the same time. Running down his chest, legs, and arms were hard little ridges. These were the result of the lightning strike and they were oddly beautiful. They reminded him of pictures of certain types of coral he had seen. He almost forgot what he was doing, but the creeping damp through his socks pulled him back to reality.

Fuchs picked up his carefully folded pants and put them on the ground on the other side of the hole, then did the same to the boots and the metal rod he had found on the tracks. It took him five or six minutes to wiggle his way through, during which the smell grew stronger.

He finally extricated himself and stood up to find himself in a long cavernous room lined down both sides with prison cells, all with their iron bar doors open. Above them, he saw a metal catwalk that ran around the room in a U shape and gave access to even more cells. About three meters in front of him was a pile of metal lying on top of a set of metal stairs. The smell seemed to be emanating from the pile.

" _Looks like someone might have had an accident."_ Fuchs thought as he put his clothes back on. _"Maybe I'll have an opportunity to use the gem."_

As soon as he was done he went over the pile of metal. The smell was definingly coming from it. Sure enough, Fuchs saw clothing sticking out from a particularly large section of catwalk. He didn't notice the hoof sticking out of the sleeve until he was right up on it, but when he did it made his blood run cold. This place was getting weirder by the minute.

The pulling away of a large section of catwalk revealed what it was he had found. It was a goat in clothing. What stunned him even more was that the hoofs had opposable thumbs! And still in the grasp of one of them was a flashlight with the switch still in the on position. The goat appeared to have died quickly, and recently, as there was no visible decay yet. By now the gem was completely forgotten and before he knew what he was doing, Fuchs had walked back to the hole in door and was preparing to go back through when a sound caught his attention. It sounded like a footstep.

Fuchs paused to listen. Sure enough, there was another footstep. Fuchs quickly buttoned up his tunic again. Just as he finished an overwhelming feeling of dread came over him like a wave from behind. For the first time in his life, or at least that he could remember, Fuchs was scared. But his curiosity got the better of him and he slowly turned around to be greeted by a large jungle cat with glowing red eyes wearing a black suit.

"Eeep!" he whispered.

Mrs. Cheval was beginning to worry, not panic yet, but definitely worry. She was used her son to go out on his own without telling her, but he always called her if he was gone for more than 24 hours, and it was nearing 48.

Almost as if it was reading her mind the landline rang. She rushed over and looked at the caller ID. It was her son's number.

" _Thank the Lord!"_ she thought.

She picked up the phone and hit answer.

"Felix, where are you? You had me worried sick." She said before her son could say anything.

"It's alright mom! I'm just out with some friends. We were going to explore the old supermax prison but decided to go to the quarry instead to swim."  
Her son's voice sounded hollow, like he was tired or the beginnings of a cold.

"But you've been gone overnight," Mrs. Cheval said. "You must have gone camping again. Why didn't you call earlier? You sound like your catching a cold. Are you alright?"

The voice that answered back still sounded like it was worn out, but this time it was at a different pitch of warn-outness. "So many questions mom!" it laughed. "I'm ok. The water here got forced up my nose a bit. It'll go away soon. As to the camping, yeah. The others brought their hammocks, along with a couple spares. We were going to stay here for a few days. I didn't call because I simply forgot. Sorry, mom."

Mrs. Cheval accepted this explanation for the tardiness of the call. "What about food?" She asked. "You didn't take anything from the kitchen I noticed."

"We got it covered mom. Don't worry 'bout me. I gotta go now, my phone is low on battery. Love you!" and with that, he hung up.

Mrs. Cheval stood with the phone in her hand for a few minutes, thinking about what had just happened. It wasn't unusual for her son to go camping on short notice. But it was unusual for him to be so evasive in his answers. It was almost like he was hiding something.

She considered calling the police but thought better of it. Although if he was gone for longer than three more days she'd call them. Maybe he had found a girl. Mrs. Cheval wasn't to big a fan of sex out of marriage, but there wasn't really anything she could do about it, especially since Felix was almost 18. She would just ask him when he got home. The thought of her son having sex with a girl out in the woods by an old quarry with a group of friends made her shiver. Not something she would have done growing up.

She put the phone back in its cradle. If she had not been suddenly distracted by the chiming of the kitchen timer that indicated her casserole was almost done baking, she would have remembered that the quarry was out of cell phone reception. As it was, she had to worry about finishing the meal she had promised for the potluck supper that evening at the church. Too bad Felix wouldn't be here, she thought. He loved potlucks.

The jungle cat turned out to be a jaguar, or so it told him. Fuchs wasn't as shocked by the fact that the cat could talk as he had been by its sneaking up on him. Nothing much about this place surprised him anymore. Especially not after finding the goat in clothing. His attempt to leave foiled by the cat, Fuchs finally accepted that he was probably here to stay.

"What do you want?" Fuchs asked his voice still shaky from getting the crap scared out of him.

"Oh, right now nothing," the cat said in a low nasally voice. "You see, I'm the one who sent you here. Remember that storm?" he said chuckling. "I was able to get that storm planted there you see, and I infused it with some of my own tricks."

"You mean the lightning? Was that one of the tricks?"

"Yes! I knew you would be there that night but what I wasn't counting on was the quickness and tenacity of the guardian's response." he spat on the floor and cursed someone who's name Fuchs didn't quite catch. "The others, they don't like to meddle in their worlds affairs. Instead they like to hire 'local' as they say. Look where that got them! You stole the gem!" he fairly yelled these last couple of sentences.

"But alas, I was able to sneak in and steal the show. Literally! But I messed up part of the spell and ended up sending you here instead of where I was planning. No worries though. I found you!" he said patting Fuchs on the shoulder. Then he put his arm around Fuchs and pulled him close, like a father to a son. Fuchs couldn't help but stare at the paw that sat right next to his chin. The opposable thumb was such a strange thing to see on anything other than a human or primate.

"You see Fuchs, yes I know your name, I've been wanting this gem for a while now, but the others have been very successful at hiding it from me. They kept me out of the loop on a lot of things back then." He sighed. "And now I'm starting to get my revenge."

"Who are you though? You haven't even told me your name! Just that you want the gem that I have." Fuchs said patting his tunic pocket. The confidence in his voice had fully returned.

The cat let go of Fuchs and stood facing him instead. "Oh, dear me. I never told you my name. I'm Fallax!" he cried. "God of mischief you could call me. Though that wasn't my original name, and I wasn't always mischievous."

"You see, I was slighted by the others about oh, 3,000 earth years ago. It's a personal matter. I might tell you more later, but for now, all you need to know is that it is what made me who I am today."

"But what _are_ you? How are you 3000 years old? And are you always in this cat form?" Fuchs asked when Fallax paused. It wasn't that Fuchs didn't believe the creature. On the contrary, after all the strange events of late, this was the most plausible thing he had heard yet.

"Patience man! I'll get there. First, let's get some light in this place, this night vision gets on my nerves after a while." He then proceeded to pick up the iron bar that Fuchs had set down and smoothly slipped into the concrete like it was made of dirt. Then he cupped his hands over the end for a couple of seconds and let go. The end of the pole immediately burst into a bright white light, momentarily blinding Fuchs.

"That's better." Fallax said.

"So, where were we? Oh yes. The name the others have adapted for themselves is 'The Crafters'. He scoffed. "How tame. But I guess it fits them, I mean, that is what they do. Craft things. I used to do that once." He paused, and a brief look of sadness crossed his face, but it was quickly expelled and replaced by the smug look he originally wore.

Then without warning the cat became a blur that emitted a dull blue light. Just as quickly as it started it ended and instead of a cat standing there, there was a German field marshal. Fuchs nearly fainted. It looked like Rommel had just appeared in front of him.

"I can change my appearance to be whatever creature I am interacting with. I can even mimic specific beings within that species. We all can. Except Tempesta. He can't. Not sure why exactly, so whenever he visits a world he stays hidden."

"What do you really look like?" Fuchs asked, still a little shaken.

"Not much different than this actually. Except we glow a faint gold and have two large wings. Humans' ideas of what angels look like came from us."

"Huh. I was sort of expecting something more… interesting I guess." Said Fuchs. "Have you met him?"

"Met who?" Fallax asked caught off guard.

"Rommel. You took his form you know."  
"Oh. Yeah. I met him once in Africa. Wasn't much of a talker." Back to the main topic!" Fallax said, the nasalness becoming more pronounced the louder his voice got.

"Come, let me show you something." Fallax then walked over to the fallen catwalk section, cleared it away from the body and pointed to the dead goat.

"This young goat just so happened to wander in here, looking to explore. I,' Fallax pointed to himself "Happened to also be here. So I arranged a little accident to happen." He gestured at the pile of metal.

"What for? Why did you arrange this 'accident'?" Fuchs asked.

"Ah, because I wanted to demonstrate something to you. Here, let me hold the gem." Fallax held out his hand.

Fuchs was hesitant to hand over the thing that had basically been responsible for sending him to what he assumed was another dimension. Fallax was insistent however, and Fuchs reluctantly handed it over after a couple or minutes.

"Excellent," Fallax said, palming the gem in his hand. He then turned back to the body and held up his arm. His fingers formed a frame of sorts around the gem acting like a lens that focused the brilliant green beam of light that, without warning, shot out of the gem and hit the goat square in the chest. It only lasted a second, but its effect was instant.

The body twitched, then sat up and opened its eyes. Fuchs was immediately struck by how dull they were, even with the light Fallax had set up. The goat turned his head and looked at Fallax as if waiting for something.

"So how exactly did you do that?" Fuchs asked. "Did you say some spell or something in your head?"  
"No," Fallax said lowering his arm and squatting down to look at the zombified goat. "It's much simpler. All you have to do is focus as much thought into the task of raising the being from the dead as you can. If you do it right for the first body, then the next ones are easier and easier. The first time though is always a little tiring."

"Stand." Fallax said, this time talking to the goat.

The goat stood as told.

"They can be controlled by whoever raises them. Although if told too, they will listen to someone else." Fallax told Fuchs.

"Speak." He commanded the goat.

"Hello." The goat said. His voice sounded hollow, almost like it was coming from deeper in his throat than normal and was totally monotone.

"Hmm. I see his vocal cords have already begun to decay. We'll have to act fast."

"Fast? What do you mean?" Fuchs asked with concern.

Fallax didn't answer. Instead, he walked up to the goat and stuck his hand in the goat's left pocket and pulled out a small rectangular device.

"This is his telephone. We need him to call his mom and tell her not to worry. It wouldn't be good if the police showed up just yet. We aren't quite ready for them."

"Wait, that's his _telephone_? How?!" Fuchs blurted.

"They're an older civilization than yours. Their world has been around much longer, they've advanced much further in most technologies. Including long rang comms." Fallax said while examining the goat's head. "Hmmm. I can do a temporary fix on his mind, make it to where he has more inflections in his voice. It won't last long though."  
With that, he laid his hand on the top of the goat's head. A brief blue glow shone from under his hand.

"Do you remember anything?" Fallax asked the goat after he removed his hand from his head.

"Yes, I, I remember falling."  
"Excellent! Do you remember your mother?"

"Yes."

"Good! I want you to call her and tell her everything is ok and that you are just out camping with some friends down at the old rock quarry. Can you do that?"

"Yes."

"Wonderful! Here is your phone. Go ahead and call her and tell her what I said. And make it sound like you're having fun! Don't be so dreary."

The goat nodded and dialed a number his phone. Fuchs could just barely hear his mom answer before the goat had time to say anything. He wasn't interested in that conversation though. He wanted to ask Fallax a couple of questions.

"How do you know so much about the goat? You obviously told him to tell his mom things she wouldn't think of as suspicious."

"I enlisted a little help from Astutia. She knows basically everything or can find it out if you ask her too."

"Ah, so how many of you are there?"

"11 including me." Fallax said as he watched the goat. The goat looked like he was about to finish up his phone call.

"One more thing. Why did we have to act fast earlier?"

"Because these bodies continue to decay, even after brought back. It used to be they wouldn't, but as the gem got older, its power got more corrupt I guess you could say. I just didn't want to take any chance on this guy. I'm not sure how long the voice box works after death, especially among this planets inhabitant. There are so many different types, and all of them decay at a slightly different rate. Not to mention this place is perfect for making one decay even faster."

That sort of made sense to Fuchs. But not entirely. However, he didn't feel like pushing the topic, especially since the goat finished his call to his mom. But he still didn't know why this Fallax person was here, or why he wanted the gem.

Fallax took the phone from the goat and told him to go stand guard at the entrance on the other side of the room. Curiously enough, the steel door on that end also had a hole cut into it. Fuchs wondered if he'd ever learn why.

"You see," Fallax began, "I have always wanted a world of my own. The other crafters have them! Tempesta has Daysill and Misericors the 'Tenderhearted', gah how lame, has Earth. Yes, the place you came from, and the list goes on. I'm the only one who doesn't have control or guardianship of a planet. I think it has something to do with me being the last of the crafters to come into existence. I'm the runt of the litter you could say."

"So, when I learned that you were going after the gem, well, I couldn't pass up the opportunity. Misericors isn't exactly the best at watching over a world. If she was, you wouldn't have gotten away with the gem."

"So, I waited until you had it, then put my hurriedly put together plan into action. I was going to send you to Vieron but instead I accidentally sent you to this place. Zootopia the inhabitants call it. Luckily no one has ownership of this world either, and, seeing as I have no way of moving you, it'll have to do."

"So, what do you want with me?" Fuchs asked incredulously. "Wait. Before you answer, I need to find a place to sit." Fuchs looked around and selected a piece of the collapsed catwalk as a chair. "Ok, continue."

"Well, I think that I will put you in charge of the army I want to create using the gem. I mean, I could do it, but why go to all the trouble of raising them when I could get you to do it? You would be my second in command when we take over the planet. I'll do the raising and will tell them to listen to you as well as me."

"Well, I guess I can't argue with that." Fuchs said shrugging his shoulders. "I'm guessing then that you will kill a bunch of —People? —and then raise them so you can control them?"

Fallax started to pace back and forth. "That would be too hard. No, I am going to raid some cemeteries. Then I'll use those to kill and bring back bodies. And they preferred to be called _mammals_."

"And what cemeteries are you planning on raiding?" Fuchs asked.

Fallax stopped pacing and looked at Fuchs. Fuchs was suddenly struck by odd it was to be talking with someone who looked and sounded exactly like Rommel in an abandoned prison on another planet. What a strange turn his life had taken he thought.

"Why, the first will be the prison cemetery of course! It's a bit of a messy one, but it should do nicely to start us off." Fallax said, his nasalness growing and then subsiding. "From there, I'll send out our minions to other cemeteries, ones that have been forgotten. There are more of those than you would think Herr Fuchs. There are at least six medium-sized cemeteries, all no more than 200 kilometers of here. That's because of the six small towns that all went abandoned because of this city. As the city grew, no one wanted to stay in the town and eventually, everyone moved here. The exception is Bunny Burrow, which is further away than the other towns. They have a huge cemetery." Fallax paused to think. "Say, I bet we could get some from there."

"That's dumb if you ask me. How are skeletons going to move? Or be anything but a pile of bones? Plus, how on earth would we move them without anyone noticing?"

"For one, they aren't all decayed like that. But even if they are, well, the gem can bring back some modicum of function. Such as muscles, skin, and a rudimentary brain." Fallax said. "It used to bring them back to how they used to be in the prime of their life, but over time its powers degraded. Now it raises zombies of sorts. And don't worry about the moving. I got that covered."

"Oh ok." Fuchs said. "So, how are we going to use this grand army of yours?"  
"Ah, I'll explain that later. Right now, we need start raising that army. This old prison is perfect for that kind of thing. And it gives us access to the police station! We can sneak right into the middle of them when we are ready."

Fuchs was starting to get annoyed by Fallax's voice. "And when will that be?" he asked.

"Oh, I'd say a month. But we can have a small army in a day from the cemetery here."

"A month! That reminds me. How am I going to eat? I can't go out there like this. They'd probably mob me."  
"I'll disguise you. Don't worry."

Fuchs's reply was interrupted by a cough from the goat, who had walked up to them without either noticing.

"There are two mammals who just walked in the room on the other side of the door." the goat said in his monotone voice. Apparently, the little fix Fallax did to his inflections didn't last long.

"Ah, excellent." Fallax said quietly. "Two more minions coming to us. How wonderful! We'll wait till they come in here. I'll catch them, then I'll let you do the honors my dear Fuchs."

Fallax then put a finger to his lips and motioned for Fuchs and the goat to follow him to a dark corner of the room where they squatted down. He didn't count on the two explorers to take 20 minutes to come in, but eventually come in they did.

"Man, this isn't as interesting as I thought it would be and it's so freakin dark." A small fox complained. "Let's go straight to the station. I can't wait to see if there's a train down there. There could be all kinds of good parts for my van. I really want a headlight or two."

"Let's check this room out first though, just to make sure there's nothing here." The other, a small cat with tufted ears, replied. Then he added "Geez Finnick, I still can believe you haven't been here. It's not like this place is new."

"Yeah well, I don't have as much free time as you. Especially since Nick joined the force and left me without a partner."

The two began walking around, starting on the opposite side of where Fuchs and Fallax were hiding.

"Why don't you take me on as a partner?" asked the cat as he poked around in a cell.

"Well, it's just, just that I actually like working on my own. There's something about it that I just like. Nick was great an all, one of the best actually, and he's still my best friend. Always will be. It's just I like being on my own. Though that does mean a little more work, the profit is greater."

"Humph. If you ever decide to get a new partner though, I'm open."

"Thanks, Steven, I'll remember."

The two went quiet for a couple of minutes as the cat checked out a few more cells. The fox just shined his light around until he spotted the pile of metal. Fuchs felt his heart beat quicken and held his breath. The light only had to move a couple more feet and it would be shining right on them. Thankfully, it didn't come any closer.

"Hey, Steve! The fox called too his friend, who was a couple of cells down from him. "I found the stairs to the catwalk. Looks like they fell a long time ago."

The cat came out of the cell he was poking around in and shined his light over at the pile of metal.

"Dang. Oh well. We can go down to the station level now. Not much up here to see."

"I figured there wouldn't be." Said the fox.

The two started walking towards the stairwell door. Fuchs looked over at Fallax and was startled to see that he had changed form again, this time to a dark-skinned person with dreads wearing only a pair of shorts and sporting a mean six-pack. Fallax motioned again for Fuchs to stay quiet, then slowly stood up.

"Wait, Steve. Something else is in here. I can feel it." The fox said.

Steve stopped and was about to say something when Fallax sent a thin bolt of white light out of one of his hands that hit him square in the chest. The cat dropped without making a sound.

"Oh shit!" yelled the fox as he dove to the ground just as another bolt of light shot over him and disappeared into the wall without making a mark. Fallax cursed and tried to follow the fox, missing a couple of more bolts as the fox zig-zagged extremely fast for the exit. He barely made it through the hole, a bolt hitting beside it as he went through.  
Fallax yelled at Fuchs as he ran after the fox to use some rope and a gag that had magically appeared on the ground beside him to tie up the cat while he ran after the fox. Fuchs did as he was told, the shaking of his hands making it a little difficult to tie the rope. The goat just stood quietly in the corner, completely forgotten by both of them.

Fuchs finished his task just as Fallax came back into the room. Fuchs noticed he had changed back the cat he had originally been.

"Change of plans. That damn fox was much faster than I expected." He said more nasally now than ever. "We are going to one of the towns. Can't stay here. Grab the cat and let's go."

"How are we going to get there? I can't change form like you can you know."

Fallax was prepared for this question. "Eat this." He said, handing Fuchs a small piece of bread. "I prepared it before I came here. It'll let you turn into any living thing you want. But only once, and it only lasts 24 hours. Shouldn't take us that long to get there though."

"Great, what do I do, just think what I want to be and voila?"

"Yup. But you have to decide no more than four or five seconds after you eat it. And for God's sake don't become something big like an elephant or giraffe. And wait till we are outside. Don't want to risk getting stuck in those holes. Actually…"

Fallax walked over to the exit door and examined it for a few seconds. Then he placed his hand on one of the hinges. After a few seconds there was a 'pop'. He repeated the process with the other two hinges and stepped back. At first nothing happened, then the door slowly fell to the ground with a loud 'bang!'. Fuchs didn't flinch. He was used to loud sudden noises.

"What about the cat here?" he asked." How we are we going to explain the ropes?"

"Simple, we turn him into a zombie now. Then we won't need the ropes." Fallax pointed to Fuchs's pistol, "Use that. Don't worry about ammo. You won't run out I promise."

"Why don't you kill him with your magic? It would be a lot less messy."

"Ah, your right. Here. Use this." Fallax handed Fuchs a small syringe. "This'll do the trick and barely leave a mark. I want you to do this so that I know I can count on you if ever we need to kill. I'm sure I have no need to worry, but one never really knows until they've done the deed."

Fuchs looked at the cat laying on the ground. Was that a movement he just saw? Yup, it was. The cat was beginning to wake up. The hand Fuchs was holding the needle in started to shake a little. He wanted to do it before the cat fully woke up, so he quickly knelt and plunged the needle into his neck. The cat jerked, and his eyes flew open just as Fuchs depressed the plunger.

At first, nothing happened and the panic in the cat's eyes grew in intensity. Then the poison took hold and his eyes rolled back into his head and all his muscles went taught and he started shaking. Then, ever so slowly his eyes rolled back to normal and his body relaxed. Fuchs searched his conscience to see if he felt anything. He was a little surprised he did not.

"Great!" Fallax said. "Now use the gem to bring him back. He's fresh enough to not warrant attention. I might have forgotten to mention that the gem doesn't prevent decay after reanimation. Another reason we must hurry. Here." He handed Fuchs the gem.

Fuchs stared at the cat for a few seconds, then palmed the gem and pointed it at the cat. It took a minute, but eventually, he was able to produce a brilliant beam of green light that brought the cat back to life. The cat stood up and blinked a few times.

"Wonderful! Now, eat the bread, pick a creature, and come on."

Fuchs ate the bread and turned into the first thing he thought of, a deer. Fuchs wasn't sure why he chose a deer. It just happened to pop into his head after he ate the bread. He looked at his hands. Hooves now. They still had thumbs, which he found absurdly weird. Yet, he still felt like a human. It was like he was simply wearing a slightly itchy set of clothes that covered every inch of his body, including his head. Fallax laughed.

"Not what I was expecting. But hey! It works. Tell the cat to follow us and let's go."

Fuchs told the cat to follow him and they all left the prison, Fallax knocking down the last two sets doors the way he did the other one.

"And so, the adventure begins." Fallax said as they stepped out into the bright midday sun.

 **And so concludes the sixth chapter! I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I did writing it. I think this was the most fun to write yet!**

 **I would like to thank Mr. SpookorSpectre for helping me come up with some of the names in this chapter. I could have done it without him, but it would have taken me forever and they would not have been near as good as the names he came up with.**

 **As usual I would love to hear what you think of it and the story in general.**

 **Signing off,**

 **Erwin**


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 7.**

Finnick ran like hell and dove through the hole in the door without stopping. Something he would never be able to do if he stopped and thought about it first. He rushed for the main entrance. He could hear the creature behind him crash to the ground on the other side of the door.

" _What the heck is that thing!?"_ he thought.

Finnick didn't stop to look. However, he did slow to crawl through the hole in the inner door then slid underneath the outer door and into the afternoon sun. All that sudden movement had left him winded. Instead of stopping though he increased his speed, sprinting through the small clearing in front of the jail. Thank God for adrenaline. Two little white bolts hit right in front of him, confirming his fear that the creature was still following him.

He reached the other side of the clearing, however, instead of running down the heavily overgrown road where he was sure the creature could catch him, he dove straight into the thick brush. Briars tore at his clothes and stuck in his fur and ears, but his small size made it relatively easy to keep going.

Behind him, he could hear the creature crash into the brush, then stop. Finnick tripped but quickly recovered and kept going until he came to a high rusty chain link fence topped with broken razor wire. Quick as a flash Finnick jumped onto the fence and climbed up and over, slicing a paw on the wire in the process. Once on the other side he finally laid down and gave himself a breather, listening intently to see if the creature had followed. He heard nothing except the pounding of his heart, which slowly quieted now that he was starting to calm down.

With a sigh of relief, he stood up and followed the fence until he came to the main gate where he and Steven had hidden his van in some brush. Poor Steven, he thought. Wasn't much he could do for him now. If Finnick was the emotional type he might have even shed a few tears. He had known Steven for only a couple years, but they had become pretty close friends in that time. Not as close as he and Nick, but still close.

Finnick climbed into the driver's seat and leaned over to rummage around in the glove compartment for a rag to rap his hand with. As he wrapped up his paw, he noticed they were shaking something fierce, the effects of the left-over adrenaline was still coursing through his body. He quickly steadied his paws and without further ado started the engine, set the van in gear and drove away without a backward glance. He had to get to the station as soon as possible and tell Nick what had happened.

He cursed the long distance. Too bad he couldn't drive a straight line there he thought. Finnick decided he was going to floor it most of the way. Hopefully, he wouldn't get pulled over for speeding. Then he remembered his phone.

" _Of course! I'll call him! Duh."_

He pulled out his phone and used AI voice control to call Nick.

"Heya Finnick!" Nick answered on the third ring. "What's up?"

"Nick you won't believe what just happened!"

* * *

Nick and Judy had had a hard time waking up that morning. Being able to sleep in the last two mornings had made it difficult to get up so early. Nick groaned when the alarm went off.

"Just a few more minutes." He said burying his face in the pillow.

Judy though was up as soon as it went off, "No goofball! You have to get up!" she said shaking him. "It's a work day remember?! Maybe chief'll assign us to the Grey Box affair." She bounced off the bed and headed for the workout room without waiting for his reply.

" _How on earth does she have so much energy this early?"_ Nick wondered. _"Why can't I be like that?"_

He groaned again as he sat up and swung his legs off the bed. Time to start the coffee. Dang, they really needed to get an automated one, so it could be ready by now. Judy was done with her workout and in the shower by the time Nick had finished his first cup and started to get dressed. Something in him wanted today to be as interesting as last Friday, but another part of him wanted it to be a quiet day and he couldn't decide which one he wanted more.

Judy was showered and dressed in the time it took Nick to get his uniform on. They had decided that they would stop for bagels at a little café on the walk to the station, hence the reason they were moving so fast.

"You look smokin' today Carrots." He said when Judy finished putting on her uniform. "I hope I don't have to fend off a bunch of unwanted advances later, might wrinkle my shirt."  
"Oh hush slick," Judy said grinning. "Since when have you ever cared about wrinkles?"

"Why, always!" Nick said with a look of hurt.

"Sure Nick, sure."

"Can I get a kiss before we head out fluff? You've been moving so much this morning I haven't been able to get even one yet."

"Oh, you big baby," Judy said slyly as she pulled on his tie to make his head level with hers, wrapped her arms around his neck, and gave him a long kiss. "That better handsome?" she asked.

"Oh yes, my love. Now I'm ready for whatever the day may bring."

"I love you slick." Judy cooed, her arms still holding him at face level.

"I love you to Carrots."

After a couple minutes, they decided it was time to go. The bagel place was already open and if they hurried they could enjoy a few minutes at one of the outside tables. They made it with just enough time to sit for a couple minutes while they ate, but not long enough to finish, so they ate the rest as they walked.

Delgato was arriving at the station at the same time they were.

"Heya Nick! Heya Judy! How's it been?" he asked, "I saw that footage of y'all from the chopper a couple days ago."

"It's been a purrty durn good last couple days hasn't it Carrots?" said Nick as he held the station door for the other two. Judy nodded in agreement. "How 'bout you Delgato? Life treating you well?"

"Can't complain." Answered the lion. "Me and Fangmeyer got assigned to finding the grey box, but I have a feeling now that you two are back it'll get given to y'all."

"Ah yes, the grey box. Hey, you see us on tv a couple days ago?" Nick asked with amusement.

Delgato laughed. "Yeah, looked like y'all were having a heck of a time out there."  
Nick didn't have time to reply because just then Clawhauser let out a loud call of greeting.

"Nick! Judy! Delgato! Good to see you guys! How were your days off?" he directed this last part to Nick and Judy.

"Good!" Judy answered before Nick had time to say anything. "I actually slept in yesterday."

"Yeah, she did. It was so weird! She slept till like 11." Nick put in.

"Daaang," Clawhauser said in a slightly awed voice.

Delgato whistled, "You really must have been tired."

Judy nodded. Her fanaticism for getting up early was well known at the station thanks to Nick.  
"Yeah, Nick actually had to wake me up."

Nick looked at his watch "Hey," he interrupted, "It's almost 8, we gotta get to the bullpen before Bogo does or they'll be hell to pay. See ya Clawhauser."

"See ya, Nick!"

The bullpen was full by the time the three walked in and took their usual spots. Less than a minute after doing so Chief Bogo walked in carrying his ever-present folder and wearing his usual scowl and took his spot at the podium at the front of the room.

"Ok people listen up! Iven got some reshuffling of assignments as well as the usual to give out." He cleared his throat before continuing. "Delgato, Fangmeyer; You two are being reassigned as back up to the grey box case which is now being handed over to Hopps and Wilde." The four of them acknowledge the change. "That basically means you'll just be patrolling as usual but be extra vigilant on the radio. I won't be assigning you tow any specific task today so as to keep you free."

"Hopps, Wilde, you are being assigned to the grey box case. I want you to find it. As soon as you do call it in and I'll get together a SWAT team. Delgato and Fangmeyer will be the first to come to you, they'll also fill you in on anything they've learned after this meeting so save any questions for then."

Nick put his hand down when he heard that. Nick was a little more attentive than usual after he was given his assignment. He actually listened as Bogo gave Grizzoli and Snarlov the task of tracking down a burglar in tundra town. He looked over at Judy to see what she was doing. Judy was twiddling her thumbs and staring into space.

" _Well I'll be,"_ thought Nick. _"She's zoned out."_

He surreptitiously poked her in thigh until she snapped out of it. He grinned when she gave him a confused look.

" _Anything happen?"_ it said.

"Nothing of it interest." He mouthed. Nick didn't pay any more attention to the rest of the meeting, except for when Bogo was wrapping up and told him and Judy to stay and listen to Delgato and Fangmeyer tell them what they had learned in the past two days. Instead of leaving like normal with everyone else, he and Judy stayed in their seats, and Delgato and Fangmeyer came up to the front.

"OK," said Bogo, "I'll just be up here if you need me."

"Roger that chief." Said Delgato. "Alright, let's get straight to the heart of the matter. We have not found the grey box or the beings in it. However, we did find where they were. Or at least where we think they were."  
"We did not instigate a chase right as things were happening because the box had proven itself to be a possible extremely deadly threat and we did not want to rush into things." Fangmeyer started. "So, we waited almost 36 hours to begin our search." Fangmeyer was obviously quite annoyed that they had to wait so long.

"We ended up losing their tracks as a result." He rolled his eyes, then looked at Delgato for his input.

"Our search was postponed yet again due to the bad weather the other night and the dithering of the higher-ups. Those above our good chief here."

Bogo lifted an eyebrow and looked at him when he heard the word chief.

"Don't worry Chief," Delgato said. "Just talking 'bout your higher-ups and their dithering."

Bogo grunted and went back to whatever paperwork he was working on.

"Anyway, when we finally did get a search party, which was just me, Fangmeyer, and a couple others, it took us less than two hours to find where the box had been. Believe it or not the weather had helped us."

"Yup, it did indeed." Said Fangmeyer. "The box thing had taken refuge in an old prison railway tunnel about halfway up Parson's Mountain. If it wasn't for the heavy rain we had gotten the night before, the tracks they left would have been much harder to find. Thanks to the mud though they stood right out. And we could determine that they were only a few hours old when we got there. The tracks are consistent with those of a bulldozer."

"You mean the old Zootopia Max security prison? The one that used to have a station right under the police station?" Nick asked.

"That's the one." Fangmeyer confirmed. "This tunnel was supposed to link the prison another prison much further away, but funding fell through and eventually everything got shut down, leaving the tunnel guarded by nothing other than a clumsy fence."

Judy had a question of her own "So do you think it might be some sort of farm equipment? Maybe the creatures in it were mammals just wearing weird clothing."

"We considered this idea; however, I can't think of anyone who would bring their tractor into an alleyway in town just to drive into the woods and into a train tunnel. Plus, why and how would they have such a massive gun?! I thought those haven't been made in a hundred years!" Delgato said. Delgato was working on his history major in college before getting bored with school and dropping out to join the police force. If he said that large guns hadn't been made in a hundred years, then it meant large guns hadn't been made in a hundred years.

"Speaking of reasons, how did it get in the alley in the first place?" Nick asked. "Folks had to have heard it drive in because it definitely isn't quiet."

"We did interview a few of the mammals who loved across from and beside the alleyway where the box came from, including they guy who called it in." Said Delgato. "One of them specifically remembers glancing down the alley on her way home the night before the incident and not seeing anything. There was a heavy thunderstorm that night though, so that might account for the fact that no one heard anything."

"No one saw anything?" Nick asked with disbelief in his voice.

"Well, one fellow, a homeless sheep who out that night for some ungainly reason, said he saw a lightning bolt hit in the alley, but it didn't make any sound. He chalked seeing the bolt up to his being drunk at the time, but maybe there is some validity to his story. Despite how strange it would be. The alleyway itself was a dead end, so if anyone drove anything into it, they would have been pretty exposed."

"Very strange. How very strange indeed." Nick said, putting on his best Sherlock Holmes voice. "Tell me Carrots, what do you think of this most extraordinary matter?"

Judy thought for a second before answering "I think we should go check out the alleyway. There might still be some evidence there despite the recent rain."

"Me and Fangmeyer looked over it already, but feel free to go back. We might have missed something."

"And I think we should go check out the prison." Nick added. "They spent like what, two or three days in the tunnel? Maybe they followed it back."

"It's possible, but the entrance to the prison would have been bricked up when they stopped work on it." Said Fangmeyer.

"I don't think that would stop them. You did see the hole they left in the road, right?" asked Judy.

"You got a point there Wilde number two." Fangmeyer ceded. Judy rarely let others call her that. Most folks at the station still called her Hopps. Only when there were not any strangers or new officers around would she let anyone call her that, and only certain mammals at that.

"Well, that's all we got for you." Said Delgato. "Any more questions?"

"Nope! Not that I can think of." Said Nick. "I think the first thing me and Carrots are going to do is check out the alley since its closer. Whatcha say Judy?"

"Sounds good to me."

"Wonderful. You got any questions Chief?" asked Delgato.

Bogo looked up and said, "No. It sounds like you guys have got it all figured out, and I already know all I need to know." He picked up his papers, "I'm going back to my office." Just before he walked out the door he stopped and said "Oh, do not confront the box on your own Nick and Judy. Wait for back up. If you do find it just keep it in sight and call it in. I'll put as many units as I can on it. And make sure you have your most powerful tranquilizer on you at all times. Got it?"

"We'll wait this time chief. Don't worry."

"You better." Bogo said, then left.

"Well now. Isn't he a social one?" Delgato said sarcastically.

"Right?" said Nick. "But he does have a point. Me and Carrots here aren't exactly known as cautious. Isn't that right Carrots?"

Judy laughed. "Yup! Wouldn't have it any other way though!"

"Me neither." Nick agreed.

"Well, if you need us we will be over in the rainforest district." Said Delgato. "Not much happens over there so we should be free most of the day."  
"Roger that big cat. We'll call you up if we need anything." Said Nick.

"Don't call me that Nicky."

"Ok Delgato, I won't call you that if you don't call me Nicky."

"Deal."  
"Good. See you guys later. Come on Judy, let's go investigate that alley."

"Right with ya Nick."

The ride to Forrest Street didn't take very long. The hole in the road caused by the box had been repaired soon after things had quieted down, but the smell of new asphalt still lingered, causing Nick to wrinkle his nose.

"Goodness, I never did like that smell. It's way to sharp."

Judy sniffed "Huh, I can barely smell it."

"Having a sharp sense of smell has its ups and downs I guess." Said Nick.

Judy parked the cruiser behind a small green sedan two spots down from the alley. The alley was only about 12 meters deep, and at the end of it was a large, green, surprisingly un-foul-smelling dumpster. Otherwise, there was nothing that stood out.

"Well, I guess there really was nothing here to find." Nick said.

"Let's not go just yet." Said Judy. "Maybe they missed something."  
"But there's nothing here Carrots! What could they have missed?"

"I don't know. You're probably right but let me look around."  
Nick rolled his eyes but didn't protest as he and Judy started searching the ground for clues. Suddenly, Judy straightened up and said "You know, I bet they didn't check the trash can. There might be something around or behind it." She started for the big green box.

"There's a reason they probably haven't checked it. How could there possibly be anything of use in it?" Nick asked exasperatedly. Sometimes Judy really got on his nerves. "Not only that, but the trash was picked up on Saturday." He said pointing to the laminated schedule taped to the front of the dumpster.

"Ok, so there is nothing in it. But that doesn't mean there isn't something around it." Judy said.

Nick rolled his eyes again but didn't say anything. He had learned long ago that when Judy set her mind to something, she very rarely could be argued out of it. He decided he would let Judy look around the dumpster while he checked Furbook.

Nick had barely started scrolling the feed when he heard Judy call his name.  
"Nick! Come look at this!"

Nick looked up from his phone, his curiosity thoroughly peeked. What the heck could she have found?  
"What is it Carrots?" he asked as he walked.

"There's a bunch of large metal shards sticking out of the back of the dumpster and the wall behind it!"

Nick reached Judy and saw that she was looking down a half meter or so gap between the dumpster and the brick wall of the building behind it. It took a second for his eyes to focus, but when they did he saw that there were numerous dark grey/black pieces of metal of various shapes and sizes sticking out of the metal and brick.

"What on earth?" he said

"I know right! Our first clue!" Judy was excited at finding a clue so early. "Let's see if we can get a couple of them." She said as she finished putting on a pair of disposable gloves she had taken from her pocket and started to squeeze behind the dumpster.

"Wait, don't you think we should let SOC guys or someone check it out first?"  
"Nah. No one got seriously hurt and it's just one clue. We should be ok." Said Judy just as she reached the metal. "Hey! It looks like they're arranged in a rough circle on the wall and the dumpster. And… gosh, this is hard to get out." Nick couldn't really see what she was doing because her body blocked the arm she was using to grab the metal, but he heard her grunt once with effort.

"I got one!" she cried triumphantly after a minute, holding up a jagged chunk of metal approximately the size of a beer can and about a centimeter thick. "What the heck is it?"

"No idea Carrots. See if you can get a couple more though." He said as he put on a pair of latex gloves, so he could hold the metal with contaminating it.

Judy nodded and went back to work. After a couple minutes, she said  
"I got two more! They're both smaller than the first. I'm coming back out now." She handed the larger one to Nick once out from behind the dumpster.

"Man," Nick said as he turned it over in his hands. "What _is_ this?"

The metal was very smooth and had a little bit of a gloss to it. It was a little weighty too, about ¼ of a kilo if Nick had to guess. The other pieces were the same, just smaller and more jagged. They looked like they had been in an explosion of some sort.

"Let's get these to a lab. I have a feeling they will find traces of explosive." Said Nick looking up from the piece in his hand. "I don't know what they could be. I've never seen anything like them."

They put the pieces in little baggies and finished searching the rest of the alley, more thoroughly this time, but failed to turn up anything else of interest. So, they went back to the station, parking in a special police parking spot on the side of the road. They were most of the way up the stairs when Nick suddenly grabbed Judy by the shoulder stopping her just as she was about to open the door.

"What is it Nick? Something wrong?"

"Look over there." He said, pointing off to the right.

"What? What am I looking at?"  
"See that wolf?" Nick said pointing accross the street. "The one with the light grey fur and the hat? I saw him a couple days ago when we were in the smelly cab. He was staring at us from a crosswalk."  
Judy spotted a tall wolf in a black fedora just as he disappeared into one of the ubiquitous coffee shops across the street.

" _How did I not see him?"_ she thought.

"He was watching us just then too. Something is up. If I had to guess I'd say it has to do with the box. We should go confront him, see why he's tailing us."

"Now? I don't doubt he's up to something, but we still have the evidence on our person. Let's take it to the lab first."

"No. Let's go confront him now. He might get away if we wait. Umm… we'll just leave the evidence in the cruiser when we drive it over there."

"But...!"

"No buts! I want to see what this guy is up to. All my con instincts tell me to go question him. They're rarely wrong."

Judy sighed. "Ok slick. I'll follow your lead."

"Thanks, Carrots. I'll make it up to you later." Nick winked at her. "Come on let's hurry!"

Together they quickly walked back down the stairs and back to the cruiser, unlocked it, and put the pieces of metal in the glove compartment.

"Let's walk over there Carrots. Less conspicuous then moving the cruiser 30 feet down the road."

"Gotcha. This is starting to get fun! I wonder what he will say?"  
"No tellin' Fluff. We'll find out soon enough though."  
They hurriedly crossed the street, then walked casually over to the coffee shop and strode in like they were just coming in for a quick cup of joe. The place was pretty busy. Half the patrons had laptops with them, and it took a minute to find the wolf amongst all the screens and heads with earbuds.

"He's over there Nick." Judy whispered, giving a brief sideways nod to the wolf, who was quietly sitting a two-person table in the back of the busy room. He didn't seem to have noticed them, but Nick wasn't sure.

"I see him. Order me a coffee, will you? I'm going to introduce myself to him."

A hurt look crossed Judy's face. "You don't want to wait on me?"  
"Ah Schrute. Ok, Judes. I'll wait. Are you going to get anything?"  
"Might as well, since we're here. I'm going to get that carrot smoothie." She said pointing at the menu board on the wall.

Despite the business, the line moved fast, and within ten minutes they had ordered and were standing at end of the counter waiting on their drinks. Nick's came first, followed by Judy's a few minutes later.

"Alright Carrots, be ready for anything. I bet he knows we were going to see him come in here, so be careful. Let me do the talking at first."  
Judy nodded. "You got it slick."

Without any hesitation, Nick walked straight up to the wolf. "Mind if I sit here?"

"Not at all. In fact, I was expecting you, Nick. Pull up a chair for your friend there too." The wolf said motioning to Judy.

Nick was a little taken aback by the use of his name. "So you were expecting us! Ha! I knew something was up. Hold on, let me get a chair for Judy."

Judy didn't notice Nick leave her side to get the chair. The wolfs eyes had caught her attention. Those eyes. They were a shiny black and held the wisdom of a very old mammal, yet they were so young and vibrant looking. She had never seen anything like it before. The eyes caught her staring and gave a little twinkle. Judy let out a small gasp, just as Nick came back with a chair. Nick didn't notice the gasp.

"Man, this place needs more tables and chairs." He said to Judy when he set the chair down.

"Take the seat across from him Judy. I'll sit here." He sat down in the chair he had just brought.

"So, how did you know my name? And how were you expecting us?"

"Oh, you two are pretty famous. It only took a couple minutes on the web to figure out who you were. As too how I was expecting you, that's just as easy. I saw you spot me and figured you would follow me in here."

Nick chuckled at the famous part. It actually wasn't all that uncommon for people to come up to him and Judy when they were on their off days and asking for a selfie. He actually kind of enjoyed it.

"But why were you watching us in the first place? I saw you at the cross walk that time. If I wasn't in the cab I would have confronted you then."

The wolf laughed. "Yeah, I saw you looking through the window. I couldn't find you till later the next day, and I wouldn't have then if it wasn't for a little help from someone."

"You didn't answer his question though," Said Judy. "Why were you watching us?"

"Well," he paused and cleared his throat, "I'm the one who is sort of responsible for the little fiasco the other day. I was spying on you because I was considering asking you to be a liaison of sort."

Judy was speechless. That was totally not what she was expecting. Nick was the same way, but he recovered faster.

"You mean to tell me," he said, "That you are the one that caused the grey box thing to do what it did?"

"Yes. Sort of. I brought it here, to this world I mean, to retrieve something for me."

"You got evidence of some sort?" asked Judy.

"Of some sort. Here, I'll show you some of my powers. Maybe that will convince you."

The wolf proceeded to take the lid off his coffee cup and show them that it was empty.

"I will now refill this cup with coffee."

He held his paw, palm down and fingers apart, over the mouth of the cup. A faint brown light seemed to come from his paw. Then he showed them the cup again. It was now full of steaming hot coffee.

"What the heck man." Nick said standing up. "Maybe we should talk somewhere else."

Judy for once was more composed than Nick was.  
"Sit down Nick," she said tugging on his hand. "Folks are looking at you funny."

Nick sat back down.

"Sorry, Judy."

"it's ok, but it was a little unlike you."  
"I know! But you don't think that maybe we should call this in?" Nick asked.

"Now you're sounding like me! I knew I was rubbing off on you." Judy said with pride in her eyes. "No, I don't think we should. I want to hear him out. Normally I would call something like this in, but I just have this feeling that we shouldn't. I'm surprised you don't too."

"Humph. I guess you're right." Nick agreed.

The wolf had just sat there quietly while, even taking a sip of his magic coffee, and watched. He just nodded when Nick said he'd listen to what he had to say. Judy realized then that he had not even told them his name.

"I wondered when you would ask. It's Nuntius."

"Well, I still don't believe you Nuntius." Nick said. "How do I know that wasn't planned ahead of time?"

"Ah but you don't. Ok, I'll do something you ask. Nothing major of course, to many mammals around."

"Right right." said Nick in a thoughtful voice.

"Alright, I got one." he said snapping his fingers. "Make a gold nugget appear on this table." he touched the center of the table with his finger as he said it.

The wolf laughed. "Ok Nick. One gold nugget coming right up." he sat up more in his chair. "Watch closely."

"Oh, I will. Judy watch his paws. I'll watch the table."

Judy nodded. "Ready." she said.

If it wasn't for the sudden appearance of a lumpy yellow rock on the table, Nick would not have seen anything.

"What the friking heck." he said slowly, leaning back in his chair.

"Now do you believe me?"

"I, I guess so. You believe him Carrots?"

"Yeah." she said slowly before asking "So, um, how did you get your, er, powers?"

'Ah, for that, I might as well give you the whole story. You see, I am part of a group of 11 'gods' called The Crafters. We are responsible for the creation of everything in the universe, including your planet here. I am here…" Judy's hand went up, indicating she had a question. "Yes, Judy?"  
"So are you saying there are other planets with life on them?" She said excitedly. Nick just rolled his eyes.

"Yes, I am. And that is why I am here. A being from one of those planets was able to steal something very valuable to all living things. Something we had helped hide on his planet a very long time ago."  
"Would that be the grey box?" Judy asked without raising her hand.

Nuntius laughed. "I like your wife Nick. She's perfect for you."

"I know right? I don't know where I'd be without her."

"Anyway," Nuntius continued. "To answer your question, no. The grey box is not what was stolen. It's what I sent here to help retrieve what was stolen. It's part of my job to get things back, and the others won't help if it means they might get dirty. Though some of them will help from home so to speak, which is how I found you."  
"Who helped you?" Nick asked.

"Astutia. She is the knowledgeable one so to speak. She knows almost everything and helped to track you two down again. Problem with her is I think she's helping Fallax too, but I don't have any proof."

"Oh ok. You said there are 11 of you? Do you all have different 'jobs' I guess you would call them?"

"Yes, sort of. Let me finish my story, then I'll tell you more about us ok? Save your questions for the end please." He looked at Judy, who fidgeted in her seat.

"Ok." She said. Nick agreed as well.

"Good. The other planet is called Earth. That planet is vastly different than this one, in most regards. For one, the dominant life form there is human. They do not have fur except on the tops of their heads. They are also much more violent then the inhabitants of this planet, so while they are a couple hundred years younger and therefore less technologically advanced then you, they have machines of war. Things your kind barely developed before stopping a long time ago."  
"The grey box is one of those machines of war. They call it a tank. I was able to have it moved here after it was destroyed in a battle on their planet. The humans that crew it though did not come through as cleanly as I thought and still bear their wounds."

Nuntius paused as two loud mammals with curly horns walked past. Judy recognized them as Bucky and Pronk. She tried to hide in her chair, but it was too late, Bucky had spotted them.

"Hey! It's Judy!" he said. "Hi Judy!"

Pronk stopped too and said hi.

"What are you doing here today? On a case?" Bucky said in his annoying voice.

"Er, something like that yes."

"Leave her alone dude!" said Pronk, hitting Bucky in the shoulder and almost causing him to drop his drink.  
"Hey man! What was that?"

The commotion was attracting the annoyed looks of other mammals in the room. Bucky and Pronk seemed to realize it at the same time because they both suddenly quieted. Pronk looked at Judy and said;

"Sorry Judy, we'll go sit down now."

They quickly left and went outside arguing the whole way and found a spot in front of the plate glass window.

"Who the heck was that?" Nick asked with an amused look.

Judy sighed and sat back up. "Just my noisy ex-neighbors. They used to keep me up at night with their arguing."

"Ah, say no more Carrots." He turned to Nuntius. "Continue your story Nuntius. Where'd you get that name anyway? It mean something?"  
"Sort of." Said Nuntius after he swallowed a sip of coffee. "It's the Latin word for 'messenger'. It's my main job you could say. Although at time like this I also do some of, more like most of, the dirty work. I have the ability to change to the form of whatever creature I am visiting."

"Sweet! Can you show us what a human looks like?" Judy asked.

"Maybe later, but not right now. I haven't finished telling you why I am here. The thing that was stolen from earth was a small green gem that has the power to raise the dead, and in the hands, or paws, of the wrong person it could be extremely destructive."  
"So who stole it if it wasn't the, uh, tank crew?"

"Ah, now we get to the heart of the matter. The one who stole the gem stole it so that he could use its power to take over a planet for himself. His reasoning is a bit complicated and isn't really useful for you to know." Nuntius said with a wave of his hand. "I was following you because I know that you will meet him and wanted to warn you. His name is Fallax I might add, and he is extremely troublesome. He wouldn't think twice about killing if it helps further his cause."  
"How do you know that?" Nick asked incredulously. "Can you see into the future too?"

Nuntius laughed. "Sort of. I am a god of many 'sort of' traits. Have you ever heard of fate?"

Nick and Judy nodded. Of course they had.

"If you think that it is a group of weavers deciding your life's story in a tapestry, or anything like that then you would be wrong." Nuntius un-crossed his legs and sat forward in his chair. He lowered his voice before continuing making Nick have to lean in to hear him properly.

"You see," He continued. "Fate is not created. Not on purpose anyway. Fate emanates from all living things much like a radio signal does. None of us Crafters know how it works. We didn't create it. It just appeared. However, some of us have learned how to read this signal, to varying degrees of success. It's very tiring, and I can only read it a few days out, and only with about 80% accuracy. You two's fate signal tells me that you will encounter him, but the timing is always changing. Sometimes I see it, sometimes I don't, which means you could see him today or you could see him in three days, but you will definitely see him. As a matter of fact, I think that you have already seen him. Have you come across anyone acting strange lately? Other than me I mean."

"Just when I thought this meeting couldn't get any weirder, it did." Nick said as he leaned back in his chair. "Yeah, we saw some creepy dude walking out in the rain the other night. Scared the crap out of me when he appeared in front of the car.

"That was probably Fallax. Not sure how he knew who you were. Most likely it was just a coincidence." Said Nuntius smiling. "Now, Fallax has enlisted the help of another human, who happens to be from the same country as the tank crew. I don't think his help was voluntary, but I also don't think it matters really."

"Whys that?" asked Judy.

"Because I think the human had the same plans as Fallax. I wonder what Fallax would do with him if he reached his goal." He said looking into his cup as he swirled its contents around. "Can't have two absolute rulers you know."

"That's true." Said Nick.

Silence descended on the table for a couple minutes. Nick looked around. The shop seemed to have emptied out a little since they'd come in. Judy finally broke the silence by asking;

"So, um, is there anything else we should know about? Didn't you say you were going to use us as a liaison or something?" she said.

"Oh yes can't forget about that, now can we?" Nuntius said looking up from his drink. "So, I was thinking that it would be good to give the crew a guide so to speak. To the geography of this place and maybe even its culture. I picked you two because of your encounter with them on Friday."

"What took you so long to contact us?" Asked Nick.

"Simple, I wanted to get to know you a little before I said anything. You know, like character and what not. You getting those two days off made that a little easier because I got to see how you interacted with your families."  
"You were watching us when we were at my parents!?" Judy said forcefully. "How did we not see you?"

"I'm good at hiding." Nuntius said with a hint of pride in his voice. "A little creepy, I admit. But I learned a fair amount. You are both good with other mammals, especially with using patience. And you both seem to be quite brave and even adventurous. All are good traits for what I am looking for."

"Adventurous eh? Hear that Carrots?"

Judy laughed. "I guess you could say that. I do tend to push things."

"I'd say." Said Nick, remembering the time when she forced them to climb over the fence to check out the limousine that turned out to be Mr. Big's.

"So, what do we have to do? Are you going to take us to the crew?" Nick asked.

"Yes, however, I have to go find them again." Nuntius sighed. "I knew where they were, but that was yesterday morning. I'm pretty sure they would have left by now. Do you know of anywhere they could go and set up a base of sorts that wouldn't attract any attention?" he said looking at Nick.

"Hmm, yeah. There are some old settlements around 20 kilometers from here. They are kind of spread apart though." Nick said. "One's out near the old prison. Um, another is just on the other side of Parson's mountain. Those would make good meeting spots. I've only ever been to the one out near the prison."  
"Alright. When I find them, I'll send them there."  
"But you don't know where it is."  
"You are right. Would you like to show me?"  
Nick looked at Judy.

"Um, what do you think Carrots? We are going out that way anyway."  
"I don't know Nick. It's against the rules to give rides like that on the cruiser you know." She said.

"Oh don't worry about that." Said Nuntius. "I'll just follow you my own way."

"What way is that?" asked Nick

Nuntius smiled. "That's for me to know and you to maybe find out."

Nick rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Just don't make it obvious you're following us."  
"Don't worry, I won't."

"Right, well me and Judy have to go now. This took longer than we were expecting, and we got stuff to do." Nick said standing up. "Be right back." He picked up the chair and took it back to the table it was at earlier.

Judy stood "So you'll just appear when we get where we're going?" she asked Nuntius.

"Yup."

Judy nodded. "See ya then." She said.

Nuntius didn't say anything. He just continued to sit and drink his coffee. Judy shuddered. She was still a little creeped out by his eyes. She grabbed her cup of the table and went to the trash can, then met Nick at the door. Bucky and Pronk were still there.

"What a weird day." Nick said as he opened the door and held it for Judy.

"I second that." She said.

"See ya, Judy! Good luck saving the world!" Bucky called to her.

"Oh shut up and stop annoying her!" said Pronk.

"No! you shut up!" replied Bucky.

Judy just ignored them. She knew they would argue like that for at least another five minutes. Plenty of time to get away.

"Goodness, they're annoying."  
Nick laughed. "I'd say."

"Oh man, I forgot we left the cruiser running." Said Nick. He opened the door and saw the bag with the metal shards.

"Oh yeah, I forgot about those. Are we still going to…"  
Just then his phone starting ringing. He pulled it out of his pocket.

"Huh, it's Finnick." He said when he saw the caller ID. "Wonder what he wants."

He hit the answer button and put the phone to his ear.

"Heya Finnick!" he said. "What's up?"

 **Wow, sorry for the delay in getting this chapter out folks. I blame World of Tanks and their 'British Challenge.' Specifically, not making it longer and thus making me have to spend non-school computer time trying to complete it. Only got half way through though. They make those things much too hard, either that or they need to give you more time.**

 **Anyway, this chapter was kind of hard to write, but I am pretty pleased with the outcome. In case you were wondering, the pieces of metal found behind the dumpster are shrapnel from a shell. They don't play a huge roll in the story, but they will come up again later, and I'll explain how they got there then.**

 **As usual, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please feel free to leave any comments or what have you. I always like hearing back from readers.**

 **Signing off,**

 **Erwin.**

 **P.S If you leave a review and do not have a Fanficiton account, i can not respond to your review. So please make an account if you want to leave a review.**


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter 8**

"Nick, you won't believe what just happened!" Finnick said in a panic-stricken voice.

"What do you mean?" asked Nick frowning. "Is everything ok? You sound like you've been running or something."

Judy glanced up from the bag of metal she was holding and gave Nick a quizzical look. Nick held up a finger. _"Hold on."_ He mouthed.

"I have been! Nick, somethings going on out at the old prison. I barely escaped with my life. They got Steve! He's deader than a doorknob!"

Nick had never heard Finnick sounding so panicky. Finnick was known for being calm cool and collective, much like Nick. That's why they had hit it off so well all those many years ago. And who was Steve?

"Ok Finnick. We are on our way to the prison now, are you still there?" He asked, motioning to Judy to get in the cruiser as he got in on the passenger side.

"NO, you idiot! I am not." Finnick yelled into the phone, causing Nick to wince. "I'm in the van on my way to the police station."

"Well, we won't be at the station." Said Nick. "Are you near a landmark or something?"

"Umm, a gas station coming up. Want me to stop?"  
"Yes! Me and Judy will meet you there. Is it the Fastshoppe on 72?"

"Yeah." Finnick said.

"Ok, we'll be there in 15 or 20. Call me If you need me, I gotta go."

"Ok Nick. See you soon."  
"Roger." Nick hung up.

"What was that all about?" Judy asked, putting the vehicle in drive. "And where are we going?"

"That was Finnick. And we are going to the Fastshoppe out on 72, near the old super max."

"What about the metal?"  
"We'll take it to the lab later. Right now, we have other priorities. I don't know much, but Finnick says someone named Steve bought it."

"You mean got killed?" Judy said, suddenly all serious.

"Yup."  
"Alright. Direct me there, cause I don't know where that is."  
"You got it Carrots. Go through the next two lights and take a right at the third."

Just over 16 minutes later, after a mad rush through midday traffic with light flashing and sirens blaring, Nick and Judy screeched to a stop in the parking lot of a rinky-dink gas station. A faded red sign said "Clive's Fastshoppe! Eats, treats, and gas."

Nick wondered what it meant by 'treats' and decided he probably didn't want to know. Finnick's van was parked in front of the dingy looking red and white store. Finnick had seen them pull in and was already out of the van and walking to the cruiser even before it had been put in park.  
Nick was out before Judy had unbuckled her seat belt. He met Finnick hallway between the two vehicles.  
Finnick was clearly shaken. His fur was all messed up, and Nick saw sticks and bits of brush sticking out all over, and one of his ears had a gash in it.

"Good grief Finnick! What happened?"

"Nick! They got Steve!"  
"Woah now Fin. Calm down. Start at the beginning. While we're at it, let's go sit down." he motioned to a worn wooden bench up against the wall of the station building. "We can sit in there and talk."  
Finnick took a deep breath. "Ok." He said.

"It started last night at the bar when a friend of mine, Steven, and I started talking about ways to soup up our vans." He paused and reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. It was in his mouth and lit in seconds. Nick was almost too surprised to say anything.

"When did you start smoking Fin? You used to hate cigarette smoke."

"About a year ago. Things have been pretty stressful. Had some girl trouble, the job, that kind of thing." Finnick took a long drag and held his breath, then slowly blew the smoke out his nose. Nick just watched. Now that he thought about it, Finnick did look like he had aged a lot since he had joined the force. Maybe the conning was starting to catch up to him.

Judy walked up and took a seat next to Nick just in time to hear Finnick say;

"Oh, and sorry about yelling at you earlier. I was a little stressed."  
"A little? I'd say a lot more than that." Nick said. "And you're forgiven."

"Thanks. Hey Judy. You keeping ole Nicky here out of trouble?' Finnick asked.

"Ha! Barely." She answered.

Nick said "It's more like me keeping her out of trouble. She so full of energy I'm afraid she might explode if I didn't reign her in sometimes."

Judy harrumphed at this and punched Nick in the shoulder.

"Ouch Judes!"  
"It's what you deserve." She said.

Finnick was quiet during the exchange, but he spoke up and said "I envy you two. I wish I could find someone to settle down with. Life is just not the same now that me and you aren't out on jobs with me anymore."

Nick stopped his retort to Judy and looked back at Finnick with surprise on his face. Judy went quiet too. Nick didn't know Finnick really cared so much about their friendship. Sure, he knew that they had each other's back and all that, but he had thought it more of a working relationship. Now though, he wasn't so sure. They hadn't spoken a whole lot since Nick had joined the force. Especially since Finnick hadn't given up the con life.

"Anyway," Finnick continued much more calmly now thanks to the cigarette. "We were talking about ways to soup up our vans, and Steve mentions the prison back there." Finnick jerked his thumb over his shoulder in the direction he had come from.

"Wait, Finnick, hold on. You can continue your story in a second." Nick said. "Let's meet somewhere tonight and talk, just us too. Like we used to do. We haven't done that in a long time, and I have some things I want to ask you now."

Finnick was quiet for a moment, then a smile grew on his face. "Ok Nick, you got yourself a date. How about Marshes over on Steeple Street?"  
"Sounds good to me bud." replied Nick.

Finnick continued his story, more energetically now. "Steve said that last time he was there he had seen an old subway engine car thingy still in the abandoned prison station and that it had some awesome headlights that would look pretty cool mounted on the roof or grill." Finnick paused for another drag on his cigarette. Just as he exhaled a small breeze came up and blew the smoke in Nick and Judy's faces, causing Nick to cough.

"Sorry," said Finnick, crushing out what was left of the cigarette and flicking it off to the side. He continued "Steve said that he hadn't been able to get them because he hadn't brought any tools with him, so he suggested we go over there today and get them."

Finnick chuckled. "Steve found it so weird that I had never been over there before. He brought it up like two or three times."  
Judy leaned forward on the bench so she could see past Nick and asked: "When did you and Steve become partners?"

Finnick thought for a moment. "Well, we weren't really partners. More like just friends who gave each other tips or went out for drinks sometimes. Now Steve wanted to partner up, but I just didn't feel it. Doesn't matter now though." He sighed. "I'd say we'd known each other for a few years, we just didn't hang out much before Nick joined the force."

"Ah." Said Judy, sitting back on the bench again. Then she sat forward again. "Wait a second guys, shouldn't we be heading over there now? What if the perps are still there? We need to catch them!"

"You're right! I can't believe I didn't think of that earlier" said Nick standing up. "You can finish your story in the car Fin."

"I don't know Nick," said Finnick, still sitting down. "You might want to call for back up before you go. That thing that killed Steve could probably just as easily kill you two."  
"Wait, thing? It wasn't a mammal?" asked Judy.

"Oh no. Not at all. If it was, it wasn't like anything I'd ever seen. It was hulking and brown, and with no fur anywhere except the top of its head. And its teeth." Finnick shuddered at the memory. "It grinned like the devil. And it killed Steven with light from its hands!" Finnick's hands started shaking. He reached for the cigarette pack in his shirt pocket and tapped out another one. The nicotine had an almost instant effect, calming him down and stopping the shaking of his hands.

"I don't know Nick. I would wait. At least four of you should go in there, no less. There was another like him, except he was wearing a uniform of some sort. Its face was all messed up too, like it was dead or something. I didn't really get a good look at it."

Nick caught Judy's eye. He could tell they were both thinking the same thing.

" _They grey box?"_

But no, Nuntius had said they were in the mountains. Then it dawned on Nick.

"Fallax!" he said out loud.

"Huh?" said Finnick. "Fall ax? You know something I should know Nick?"

"Sorry, I'll explain later Fin, get in the car. I'm calling for Delgato and Fangmeyer. Dang it! I wish I had thought to ask Nuntius for a way to contact him."

"And here I am!" said a loud voice from coming from the station.

The trio froze and looked towards the voice. Standing in front of the entrance to the gas station was a grey wolf wearing a suit and hat.

"Nuntius? What the heck." Said Nick.

"Who's Nuntius?" Finnick asked in confusion. "What type of name is that anyway?"

"What are you doing here?" Nick yelled.

Nuntius didn't answer right away. Instead, he walked over to them and held out a paw to Finnick.

"I'm Nuntius."

Finnick shook the proffered paw, the cigarette dangling from his lips. "I'm Finnick. How do you know these two?"

"More like, why is he here." Said Judy.

"That's a simple answer. I followed you." Said Nuntius.

"Followed? I didn't see anyone following us." Said Nick.

"Of course you didn't. I was above you."

"Hold on here!" Finnick nearly yelled, causing the cigarette to fall to the ground and be forgotten. "What the heck is going on? I lost a friend to some thing shooting light out of his Paws? -I don't even know what to call them!- and now someone says he followed you by flying without an aircraft?!"

"We have a lot to catch you up on Finnick." Nick said shaking his head. "Mind if Judy joins us for part of tonight?"

"No, just explain what the hell is going on thoroughly."

Nick nodded.

"Fallax is probably long gone by now." Said Nuntius. "There is no hurry to get to the prison."  
"How did you know that's where we were going?" asked Judy.

"I overheard you."

Judy's ears drooped. She had always been proud of being the best hearer she knew. Now here was someone who could hear through concrete walls and background noise and perfectly discern a conversation.

"How do you know he's gone?" asked Nick.

"Oh, I just do. I know Fallax very well because I am the one who is always sent to clean up his little messes." Nuntius said with obvious annoyance. He nodded towards the car, "I am going to join you in the cruiser for the trip to the prison."

"Um, ok." Said Nick.

He and Judy climbed back into the cruiser, Judy driving, like normal. Finnick and Nuntius squeezed into the back next to the prisoner cage.

"Watch it, pal." Finnick grumbled when Nuntius sat on his tail.

"Sorry. Still getting used to tails."

Finnick gave him a look that said he thought he was out of his mind but didn't say anything. The trip to the prison was uneventful and took less than 10 minutes. Judy pulled into an easy to miss road that was so overgrown it looked like a natural cut, except for the parts that were still paved.

"Ominous." She said.

"Well, it's been abandoned for what, 40 years now?" Nick asked Finnick.

"Yeah, something like that." He replied.

They drove down the road a ways until they came to an overgrown chain link fence topped with broken razor wire. Just behind it Nick could see the outline of an ivy-covered concrete tower.

"This is where me and Steve came in." Said Finnick pointing to a hole in the fence. "But it's not where I came out." He laughed mirthlessly.

"Had to run through all those briars and vines over there to get back here where we parked."

"Well, this is as far as we can take the cruiser unless you don't care about messing up the paint." Said Judy as she turned the car around, so it was facing back down the road they just came down.

"Wow." Said Judy when she stepped out. "look at all the kudzu. It's taken over everything!"

"And it is one hell of a pain in the ass to run through, let me tell you." Said Finnick.

"Well, you first Fin. Take us to where it happened." Said Nick.

"Why me? What if he's still in there? How 'bout you let your magic friend here go first."

"Sure!" Said Nuntius. "Just tell me when to turn and what not."  
"Oh, I will." Said Finnick.

"That hole is too small for me." Said Nuntius when he walked up to it. "I'll make it a little bigger."  
Nuntius reached out and started touching the links of the fence, and each time he did, the link broke. Nick and Judy while amazed, weren't surprised, but Finnick had to pull out another cigarette to calm himself.

"These adventures are going to be the death of me one day." Judy heard him mumble.

Nick wrinkled his nose when he saw Finnick light the cigarette. It hurt him to see his friend like this. Had it really been that tough on him since he had left? Nick wondered.

Nuntius finished making the hole bigger and went through. Closely followed by Nick and Judy, and after a minute, Finnick as well.

"Just walk down this road until you come to a clearing. You can't miss it. The main entrance is on the other side." Said Finnick.

Nuntius just nodded and continued walking.

"Is your tranquilizer loaded?" Nick asked Judy.

"Of course, silly. Seven in the mag, one in the chamber."

"Good girl." Nick said and patted her on the head. Finnick watched the exchange without a word.

The walk to the clearing took nearly ten minutes. The clearing wasn't exactly a clearing anymore. More like a place that didn't have any trees or large plants. The ground was totally covered in kudzu, except for a path that had been worn out over the years by explorers.

"Oh yes, they've definitely been here." Said Nuntius, bending down halfway along the path and examining some strange black marks on some plant leaves. "These are scorch marks of a sort, left whenever a stun bolt hits something that's not its intended target."

"Those must have been the ones I saw hit in front of me." Said Finnick, taking a pull from his cigarette.

The group continued until it reached the entrance to the prison. Surprisingly, the concrete inside the door frame was mostly clear of the annoying vines. One of the outer doors was laying on the ground, while one of the inner door was the same way.

"This isn't how it was when I left it." Said Finnick. "Both those doors were up. I had to crawl under the outer one, and the inner one had a hole cut into it."  
"Fallax melted the hinges." Said Nuntius pointing to the hinges, which had obviously been melted.

"With his hands, I'm guessing?" asked Finnick.

"Probably."  
Nuntius cautiously stepped over the fallen doors and into the first, oddly shaped chamber with the guard station in it. He was closely followed by the swinging beams of Nick and Judy's flashlights.

"Holy crap its humid in here." Judy whispered when they walked through the second set of doors.

"Well, it is the hottest part of the day." Said Nick, taking off his aviators and carefully putting them in his shirt pocket. "Can you do anything about the heat Nuntius?"

"I'm afraid my powers don't stretch that far." Nuntius replied. "That would be a job for Tempesta. Now be quiet. Stay in here, I'm going to check that room." He pointed at the room where the faint light was coming from. The door to it was laying on the ground too.

Nuntius cautiously crept to the doorway and poked his head around the frame. After a few seconds he said;

"Fallax isn't here. Neither is the other one I warned you about, just like I thought. But there is someone standing in the far corner. A goat from the looks of it. And there is a faint light on a pole."  
"That's not Steve, Steve was a cat." said Finnick. "I don't remember a third mammal in there."

"There's something off about him." Nuntius said looking into the room. "And the light is the glowing end of a metal pole stuck in the ground. Definitely Fallax's work."

"Do you see a dead cat?" Finnick asked.

"Ummm, no. Just the goat. I think it's safe to go in, just be ready for anything." Nuntius said.

Nick and Judy took positions on the side of the door opposite Nuntius and drew their tranq guns and rested the paw holding the gun on the arm holding the flashlight.

"Ready when you are Nunts." Said Nick.

"Don't call me that Nick." Said Nuntius gruffly.

"Oops, ok." Said Nick.

Judy snickered. "He has a weird habit of giving everyone nicknames. Maybe it's because his name is Nick." She said.

"Humph. Nunts doesn't sound too bad." Said Nick poutingly.

"It's amazing how you two can be so argumentative," said Nuntius. "Even when things are dangerous."

"Huh." Said Nick. "Never thought about it before. We ready to go in?" he changed the subject.

"Yes, me first." Nuntius replied before dashing into the room and zigzagging toward the goat. Nick and Judy quickly followed dart guns trained on the goat and yelling for him to get down. The goat just stood there, staring into space. Nuntius reached him and started tying him up with some rope that had appeared in his hands. The goat did not resist.

When he was tied up and sitting on the ground, Nick and Judy put away their tranquilizers and Finnick finally came into the room from where he was lingering in the doorway, ready to run if he needed to.

"What's up with him?" asked Nick pointing at the goat. The goat was acting like he was high on something, but not anything Nick had ever seen.

"I think I know, but hold on, let me examine him a little more."

Nick nodded. He was about to ask Finnick if he was sure he hadn't seen the goat last time he was here when he saw Judy walk up to the light on the end of the pole.

"Hey, Judes! Don't touch that!" Nick said running over to her, his voice making weird echoing sounds in the cavernous concrete room.

"I won't Nick. Sheesh. You foxes are too cautious."

"Humph, well, it kept me alive for 12 or so years as a conmammal."

"Uh-huh." Judy said, her focus entirely on the light. "Hey Nick, look at this." She was pointing to the ground that the pole was stuck in.

"It looks like the concrete has been melted so the pole could be stuck in it."

Judy was right. The ground around the base of the pole looked like someone had taken a blanket and tried ramming it down a small hole. There were small folds around the pole, and the ground itself looked a little like melted plastic.

"What the heck." Said Nick bending down. "This is just getting weirder every hour."  
"How did you not see this when you walked in Fin?" Nick asked the small fox standing beside him.

"No idea Nick." Finnick answered through another cigarette Nick had not seen him light. "Maybe it wasn't there when I came in."

"Most likely it was," said Nuntius from behind Finnick. Finnick jumped, nearly dropping the cigarette.  
"Damn it dude! Don't do that!"  
"Sorry. Anyway, as I was saying, it most likely was there when you came in. However, Fallax must have heard you in time to make it invisible."  
Finnick didn't answer.

"How's the goat?" asked Judy when she saw the mammal standing quietly behind Nuntius.

"He's not doing too well. I figured out why he is acting so weird."  
"Oh? And why is that?" asked Nick.

"He's dead."

Finnick snorted, then started laughing, the room making it sound distorted. "Now I know this guy is insane. No way that goat is dead."

"Oh, but he is." Said Nuntius.

Nick and Judy took the news a little easier, they sort of expected something like that anyway.

"Pshh. Whatever." Said Finnick with a wave of his hand.

"We'll fill you in later Finnick." Said Nick. "That ok right Nuntius?"

"Yes. But no one else."

"Roger that." Nick replied. "So, did you find any ID on the goat?"

"Yes, I found a wallet in his front pocket." Nuntius said holding up a small brown fake leather wallet. "He has a student ID that says his name is Felix Cheval and that he goes to Deerbrook High School."

Judy looked at the goat. He was standing quietly beside Nuntius, his hands tied behind his back. He looked pale, and his face held absolutely no expression. It was weird to think that he was once just like any one of them, going to school, living life. Now he was dead, or, sort of dead. Judy wasn't quite sure what to call it. A zombie maybe?

"So, I'm guessing that he's like that because of the gem?" she asked.

"Yup. He's in this stupor because he's under the control of whoever used the gem on him. There's nothing I can do right now to change that, but I know someone I can take him to who might be able to make it where he will talk to us though."

"And who might that be?" asked Nick.

"Misericors. She's the one who made the gem oh so long ago. I'm not sure if she can totally reverse the effects, but I am pretty sure she can release the lock on who he answers to."

"What do you mean the 'lock on who he answers too'?" Finnick asked. "And what the heck type of name is Misericors?"

"Long story short, the goat is dead like I said earleir." Nuntius said sighing. "He was raised back to life by an evil being using a certain gem, and now he only listens to that person. For now, anyway. And Misericors is Latin."

"Oh, that answers all my questions then," said Finnick sarcastically. He turned to Nick and Judy, "You had better do a good job at explaining tonight."

"Don't worry Fin, we will." Nick assured him.

"Humph." He said, taking out another cigarette and getting ready to light it up when Nick stepped up and yanked it out of his hand and crushed it on the damp concrete ground.  
"Hey! What was that for?" Finnick asked angrily.

"Those are not good for you. I can't sit here and watch you slowly kill yourself that way." Said Nick. "Friends don't let each other do that."

Finnick was quiet. He didn't know what to say, so he just glowered and started studying the light.

"So, what do you think makes it glow?" he asked no one in particular.

"Magic of course!" said Nick

"That explains it pretty well." Agreed Nuntius.

"Hmmm…"

"What is it Finnick?" asked Nick.

"I was just wondering why they would have left the goat here. Do you think they just forgot him or something?"  
"That's a good question." Said Nuntius. "If I had to guess, I would say that yes, they did simply forget him. You and Steven probably surprised them, forcing them to move their plans ahead faster than Fallax wanted. I might be able to work that to our advantage."

"Maybe the goat can tell us where they went."

"That's what I was hoping. I'll take him to Misericors in a little bit. Should be back sometime tomorrow."

"You going to leave us here on our own or you going to stay with us till we are done looking around?" Asked Judy.

"Yes. Actually, I was going to make a dramatic exit, but since you asked, I'll tone it down. I just have to dispose of this light first. It would be very hard to explain if someone else got a hold of it and showed it around."

Nuntius took a hold of the metal pull and yanked it out of the ground. He then cupped his hand over the light and concentrated. After a few seconds, the glow coming from around his fingers went away, leaving Nick and Judy's flashlights trained on Nuntius as the sole sources of light.

"Cheese and crackers is it spooky in here." Said Judy. Shining her light around.

"Yeah," said Finnick, "But I can see in the dark, cottontail, and you can't."

Judy made an angry noise at being called 'cottontail', but she kept her mouth closed.

"Well my friends, I will be taking my leave soon." Nuntius said. Judy's light swung back to join Nick's illuminating him. One of his paws was on the goat's shoulder, the other was still holding the metal poll. "I think that you should take it easy until I get back. Maybe go analyze that metal you found earlier."  
"How did you know about that?!" asked Nick.

"I saw it when I got in the car."  
"Oh." Nick said a little disappointedly. He had been hoping to hear about another magic power.

"One more thing." Nuntius said. "Meet me at the coffee shop you met me at this morning tomorrow, 24 hours from now."  
Nick looked at his watch. The glow in the dark hands said it was 2:30. A quick intake of breath beside him didn't prepare him for looking up and discovering that Nuntius had disappeared.

"He just vanished!" said Judy quietly.

Nick laughed. "He still managed to make it dramatic, despite what he said, didn't he?"  
"I'd say so." Said Judy.

"Let's get out of here guys." Finnick's voice came from the dark. "I don't really like it in here."

"Yeah, I don't really like it either." Said Judy, her face hidden behind her light. "I can't see tidily squat without the light, unlike you two."

Nick laughed. "Ok ok, don't Y'all get your panties in a wad. We're leaving."  
The walk out of the prison took half as long as the walk in. The air outside felt like heaven compared to the humidity of the concrete structure.

"Good grief." Said Nick bending over, "It felt like the sauna did when we were on the Night Howler case."  
"You're right!" said Judy. "I had totally forgotten about that."  
"How did you forget? You were so surprised when you learned they were all naked." Said Nick.

Judy laughed. "I don't know either. Maybe I purposely forgot."  
Nick was going to reply, but Finnick cut him off;

"Sorry to spoil your little conversation here, but I have somewhere I would like to be today, so could we please get a move on?"

"Sorry Finnick. Yeah, we should get moving too. We gotta take something over to the station." Replied Nick.

"Great."

The walk back to the cruiser was a quiet one. Finnick walked behind Nick and Judy, quietly thinking about what he was going to say to Steven's girlfriend. Nick was wondering what could have happened in Finnick's life since he had joined the force to cause him to take up smoking and to start cursing. Finnick used to hate cursing. Judy wasn't thinking about anything. She was just watching the foliage slowly go by and hummed a tune.

Thirty minutes after walking out the prison doors, Nick and Judy dropped Finnick off at his van.

"Let's meet at the Plucked Hen tonight." Nick said as Finnick was getting out of the cruiser. "Say, around 6:30? I get off at six."

The Plucked Hen was a bar tailored toward foxes, although it did have other patrons.

"Good with me." Said Finnick.

Nick looked at Judy, "The Plucked Hen good with you?"  
"Well, I was thinking," Judy replied, "Why don't I let you and Finnick catch up, just you two." I can find something to do at home."

Nick felt himself relax a little. He hoped Judy didn't notice. This is exactly what he hoped she would say. Not that he didn't want to be with his wife, it was just he hadn't spent time with just him and Finnick in God knew how long.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Positive. You two could use some bond time. It's been a while."

"Thank you Judy… Hey! You hear that Fin? It'll just be me and you! Woot! Woot!"

Judy playfully punched him in the shoulder. "You don't have to be so happy about it."  
Finnick grunted an acknowledgement, then climbed into his van, and with a final wave drove off.

"Something's eating at him I just know it." Said Nick as Judy pulled out of the gas station parking lot.  
"Well, he did just loose a friend to what amounts to a god of some sort."

"Yeah, but it's something more than that. Deeper, I mean."

"Figure it out tonight. You can stay out late without me getting worried."

"Thanks Carrots. You sure you don't want me to wear a body cam though?"

"Maybe slick, if you keep being sarcastic."

"OOOH, that was low." He patted his chest, "It hurt me right in the heart."

Judy laughed. "You are just wonderful Nicky poo. This is part of the reason I married you."

The drive back took nearly 3 times as long as the trip out, but conversation made it go by quickly.

"Man, not having those lights and siren on sure do make getting through traffic a lot harder." Said Judy as she pulled into the garage under the police station.

"Yeah, folks sure are sluggish 'round here." Agreed Nick.  
The garage was only about half full, and Judy was able to find a spot pretty close to the entrance.

"Let's get this down to the lab ASAP." Said Nick. "I want to complete all our end shift paperwork, so I can get off on time tonight."

The lab was at the end of the hallway from the entrance. The air inside smelled like a mix of cleaning solutions and recycled air. Both smells Nick did not like. Sitting at a computer at the back of the room was a red fox, wearing a white lab coat and black-rimmed glasses. He was another addition to the continuing diversification of the police force. Ever since Nick and Judy had become the first of their kind to become a part, things had slowly been changing to make it easier for others like them to join.

The fox looked up from something he was working on at the sound of the door opening.

"Nick! Judy! Good to see you!" he said.

"Good to see you too Leroy." Said Nick.

The fox named Leroy stood up and met them halfway across the room. "So, what brings you two down to the land of chemicals today?"

Judy holding up the evidence bag. "We got some metal we would like you to analyze." She said.

"Hmmmm," said Leroy taking the bag from Judy's outstretched paw. He took off the glasses he was wearing and pulled a different pair from his lab coat pocket.

"Right of the bat, I can tell you these have been in an explosion. Looks pretty violent too."  
he set the bag on a nearby table. "So, what exactly is it you want me to do?"  
"We want you to learn everything you can about them. What type of metal they are, if possible where it was mined, the type of explosives, everything." Said Nick.

"I can do that. It might take a day or two though. Especially the part about where it was mined. It'll have to be run through our entire database of chemical makeups. Could take a while."

"It would be great if you could keep it under 48 hours." Said Judy. "We are in a bit of a rush."  
"I can try, but no promises." Said Leroy picking up the bag again and examining it. "I'll email you tomorrow with an update."

"Thanks Leroy, I owe you one."

"Just doing my job." Said Leroy, already starting work on the metal.

Nick and Judy left the lab and headed back up to the main floor, where all their desks were.

"Welp, time to start my least favorite part of the day." Said Nick, taking a seat at his desk and firing up his computer.

"At least you get to start a little early though." Said Judy, motioning to the clock on the wall, it said it was just at five o'clock.

"Ha, yeah, at least." Said Nick, already partly absorbed in the first part of a report. "What was the pattern you found the metal in behind the dumpster?" he asked.

"Um, kind of spherical. Like it had been a hollow ball that exploded or something." Replied Judy.

"Huh, alright." Nick said, typing something into the computer.

Thirty minutes later, Nick hit the save and print buttons on the last report and stood up to go get the papers from the printer.

"Better get these to ole Buffalo Butt's office now." He said. "Come on, let's go brief him on today's events."

"Come in." Grunted Bogo when Nick knocked on his door.

"Oh, it's you two." He said, looking up from a piece of paper he was reading. "Anything new on the box?"  
"Sort of." Said Nick. He and Judy then began to relate their experiences that day.  
"If it wasn't coming from my two most trusted officers, I would say that someone was making stuff up." Said Bogo when they had finished. 'But, it being from you two, I am inclined to believe you."

He leaned back in his chair with a sigh. Nick noticed how tired he looked.

"Do you think we should include the Feds?" asked Nick.

Bogo snorted. "No, not yet. I don't want to involve them unless I absolutely have too. God knows we already have too much red tape around here. No, just keep doing what you're doing. If You trust the Nuntius fellow, the I trust him. But don't trust him to much now."

"As too the goat, well, I will put you in charge of notifying his parents." He put his finger up before Nick could say something.  
"Yes, you can wait till he gets back." He took off his glasses. "I am bending the rules here hugely Wilde and Hopps. All this had better pay off, because it will come to light eventually, and my job will be on the line."

"Yes sir." They said in unison. Nick added, "We won't let you down Sir."  
"I know." Said Bogo. "Now go, let me finish this." He put his glasses back on and sat back up in his seat.

Nick and Judy said goodbye and left.

"I'll walk home with you before I meet Fin." Said Nick as they walked towards the front desk.  
"But you'll be late." Judy said.  
"It's ok. I'll just call him and let him know. Besides, it won't be that late anyway."

"Alright." Said Judy.

Clawhauser had just left by the time Nick and Judy had reached the front desk.

"Well, looks like we won't get a happy 'see you later' tonight." Remarked Judy as they walked by.

"Yeah, I wonder where he went." Said Nick.

"Prolly just had something to do tonight, wanted to leave on time."  
"Yeah, prolly." Nick said, not really paying it any more attention.

The walk back to the apartment was uneventful. No creepy mammals following or watching them. No strange machines coming out of alleyways unexpectedly.

"Are you sure you're ok with me being out late tonight?" asked Nick as he unlocked the door to their apartment.

"Yes, my love, I'm sure" said Judy quietly. "Go learn what's bugging Finnick so badly."

She stood up on her tip toes and gave Nick a kiss on the muzzle.

"Oh no, you can't get away with something as simple as that! Let me give you a proper kiss."

He picked her up before she could reply, gave her a kiss fit for a queen.  
"I'll be quiet when I come in." he said, before nibbling her ear and setting her down.

"Alright. Goodnight."  
"Goodnight." Nick said, and watched her close the door, the stood and listened to make sure she locked it. He heard the bolt slide home and the click of the handle lock.  
 _"Good."_ He thought. _"Well, time to go be a therapist for a little while I suppose."_

 **Ok folks here is Chapter 8.  
Now, this should go without saying, but just in case someone is wondering the next chapter will pick right up where this one left off. **

**As always, I would love it if you left a review. Let me know what you think. However, if you are using a guest account, I will not be able to reply to your review, so please make an account before you leave one.**

 **Thanks.**

 **Signing off,**

 **Erwin.**

 **By the way, has my character dialogue improved? I feel that it has, but sometimes I think it is still a bit awkward.**


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter 9**

 **Before you read this chapter, I have to say that I cannot remember if Zootopia is on the coast or not. I think that it is on a large river though. Either way, in this universe it is on a large river, not the coast.**

It was just beginning to get dark when Nick left for the Plucked Hen. Like he did to get to most places around town, he walked. Even if he was in a hurry, he would walk. Walking was usually faster anyway just because you weren't sitting in traffic. Sometimes he took a cab, but only if it was far away.

It was hot out. Nick loved the city, but he never did get used to the summer heat. Even this kilometer and a half walk worked up a bit of a sweat.

" _Stupid humidity._ " he thought.

Sometimes he missed not having a car. Not that he ever actually had one of his own, but he would use Finnick's a lot when they were out and about. Oh well, it wasn't like things were far apart around here, especially now that he wasn't living in a warehouse on the outskirts of town, though that did have the perk of being off most mammal's radars.

The walk to the Plucked Hen didn't take long. On the outside, the Plucked Hen was a very unassuming place. It looked just like a nearly empty storefront except for a not obvious sign mounted on the wall, and the heavy curtains in the windows. There were no chairs outside. Nick stopped before going and looked around for Fin's van. He didn't see it, which meant he had probably walked. He didn't live too far away anyway.

It being a bar oriented towards mammals that were naturally nocturnal, namely foxes, the Plucked Hen was much darker inside than other bars, even during the day. There was still light, provided by recessed floor LEDs that would slowly cycle through every color except white, but it wasn't enough that mammals such as Judy would have needed to see much of anything other than shadows. And the heavy curtains kept most of the daylight from coming in.

That was one reason Nick liked this place, that and it attracted a lot of foxes kind there. He thought back to when he was single. Quite a few one-night stands had come about from being here. He was glad though to have finally settled down. He had finally found someone that actually filled him with joy, a joy that lasted all the time, not just when they were in the bed.

Nick spotted Finnick almost as soon as he walked in. He was sitting at his usual spot at the end of the bar and nursing a drink, presumably a rum and ginger ale with ice, Finnick's favorite. Nick walked over and took the stool next to him. The bartender, a stunning grey vixen with an ample bosom brought him a napkin and a coaster.

"Know what you want hon?" she asked, leaning on the counter in such a way as to show off her boobs. Nick pretended he didn't notice what she was doing. He was good at that.

"Scotch, no ice, with lemon please." He said.

"Coming right up." Said the vixen turning around and pulling a bottle of the shelf.

"So, how's it been?" Nick asked, turning to Finnick.

"Interesting, to say the least." Said Finnick, pushing his half-drunk drink further up on the counter. "You going to explain what's been happening lately or do you want to talk about personal stuff first?"

The vixen finished fixing Nick's drink and brought it over, along with a straw.

"If you need anything, let me know." She said with a wink, before turning and going to help some new customers.

"Looks like you got yourself another admirer." Said Finnick, jealousy obvious in his voice.

"Yeah, I see. Better not let Judy find out eh?" he said taking a sip from his drink. The lemon left a nice after taste. He took another sip.

"Let's talk about personal stuff, as you put it, first. They'll be plenty of time to explain the strange goings on."

"Right. Well, I told Steven's girlfriend about his death." Said Finnick changing the subject. "Gah, that was hard. I hate being around people crying. I never know what to do."

"Just be there for them. You don't have to say anything." Said Nick, stirring his drink around with his finger.

"Yeah, but I don't like sitting there just listening to her cry."  
"She doesn't blame you for it does she?" asked Nick.

"No, I don't think so. If she did I couldn't tell."

"Oh."

They sat quietly for a minute, just listening to the murmur of the other patrons.

"So, how's it been since I joined the force?" Asked Nick. "Life been treating you well?"

Nick had only hung out with Finnick like they used to do two or three times since he had joined the force. The last time being the week of Nick and Judy's wedding. Finnick had been Nick's best man. He seemed pretty good then, but that was a year ago. A lot seemed to have changed since then. Things that you can't pick up in the occasional text.

"Well, ok I guess." Finnick said thoughtfully. "It's just so lonely now. I never knew how much I actually depended on you, psychologically I mean, until you got married and became too busy to hang out. And to be honest, I was a little mad at you. Leaving the business like that."

Nick chuckled at how Finnick called it a business. It wasn't exactly a business, but it did make them money. So maybe it was, of a sort.

"I mean, sure I can get along fine with the conning. Maybe not quite as well, but I can make a decent living." Finnick continued, taking a sip of drink. It was almost empty. He raised his hand a signaled the vixen that he needed another. "It's just not the same."

Despite the dark, Nick could see the sadness in Finnick's eyes. Finnick had a rough personality that made it hard for mammals to get along with him at first. But Nick knew that once you really got to know him, he actually wasn't all that bad. It was just you had to get to know him, and that was a tall order. Because of that, Finnick had never been to good with the opposite sex. It didn't help either that his kind of fox were not all that common, even in a place like Zootopia.

"So how did you meet Steven then?" Nick asked as the Finnick was brought another drink.

"Here, actually. He had taken my seat and I was forced to sit on the stool beside him." Fin took a sip of his drink. Nick noticed it was at least half the cup. At this rate, Finnick would be drunk in no time.

"I almost did something I would have regretted, but he smooth talked me out of it. I think that's what got me liking him, the fact that he could talk me out of being mad. He reminded me of you." Finnick took another sip of his drink, then made a face at how much was left. Nick saw him debate whether he should get another one or not.

"Don't." Nick said when he saw Finnick decide to get another. "Two is enough. Get something less potent."

"Huh, your right." He held up his hand. "Just a ginger ale this time." He told the tender.

He waited for the drink before continuing. "And now that he's gone, I'm not really sure if I even want to make any more close friends. You left, and he died, who knows what would happen to another? He wasn't really my partner either, just someone I hung out with a good deal."

"Now wait just a minute." Nick said, hardness in his voice. "I did not leave you. I left my old way of life, true. But I did not leave you. It's just as much your fault as it is mine that we haven't done anything together in the last year." He took a sip of hia drink, savoring the lemon. "I mean, I did make you my best man at my wedding."

"How is it my fault though?" Finnick asked, his voice a little louder than it had been.

"I didn't say it was all your fault." Nick countered, his voice rising a little to match Finnick's. "But you certainly have been a part of the problem. I mean, after I got married you sort of dropped off the map. I could barely keep track of you, and when I did find you, you always made excuses to go do something else. Now granted, I might not have tried hard enough, but at least I tried. I can't remember you doing that, at least not after the wedding."

Finnick looked down at the table. "Yeah, I guess you're right. I have been a bit of a recluse lately."

"I'd say." Said Nick, taking another sip of his drink. Maybe he would get a second.

"Still haven't found a significant other I see." Said Nick.

Finnick laughed. A dry, mirthless laugh.

"Nope!" he said. "Still haven't found one lover boy. I never could attract the girls like you could. If it wasn't for Mrs. Vallens daughter and her friend, I might still be a virgin."

"Seriously? You haven't found anyone yet?"

"Nope. I did have one misses that was interested in me. We flirted some, but it never got serious. Then one day she came up to and told me that she had to go to Coastal Zootopia because of her job, and that was that. I've been either too busy or too scared to look for someone else."

"That sucks." Said Nick, finishing off his drink. He motioned to the tender to bring him another. "Has she called you or anything since?"  
"Some. She used to call every few days, but I haven't heard from her in about four months. So, I don't know now."

Just then, another fox took a seat next to Nick.  
"Think we should move?" Nick asked Finnick. He was worried about being overheard when he started explaining the grey box.

"Um, sure." Finnick said looking around. "How about that table over there, in the corner." He said pointing.

Nick nodded and signaled to the vixen that they were moving. She acknowledged and went back to another customer.

"So, enough about me." Said Finnick once they were settled in. "Explain to me what this is all about. Why I had to go tell a grieving girlfriend that her boyfriend was killed."  
"Have you seen the news lately?"  
"The news? Um, not really. I don't watch it much. Neither do I read newspapers."  
"Ah, well, if you did you would have heard about this thing we are calling the "Grey Box Affair. Really original eh?" Nick said.

Nick's second drink came.

"Why'd you move hon?" asked the bartender. "I'm not really supposed to come out from behind the bar when I'm working."  
"Just wanted to discuss some sensitive stuff." Said Nick.

"Say no more. If you need anything, just raise your hand. I'll make an exception for you two."

"Thank, we will." Said Finnick. The vixen turned and walked away, and Finnick watched her all the back to the counter.

"My she is good looking." He said.

"Out of your league man." Nick said.

"Humph."

"Back to the story. This 'Grey Box Affair' came about because of this large, grey, metal box on tracks that came out of an alleyway one day and started shooting at us with a big gun. Blew a large hole in the road. Then proceeded to crush two cop cars before disappearing off into the woods."  
"A big gun huh?" said Finnick. "Since when have they made big guns?"

"Good question. At least not for a hundred or so years. I did some research on this on Wikipedia. Ever since the last great war between Zootopia and Coastal Zootopia, no one has wanted to fight again. The devastation was so great, that it scared everyone into peace. And thankfully, it has held till now."

"But now it looks like they are ramping up for something?" Asked Finnick.

"Ah, here's where it gets even weirder. You know that guy who helped us at the prison? He's a god. Of sorts. And the grey box is a 'tank' crewed by 'humans'. Who, by the way, are dead."

"Dead?"  
"Dead. They were sent here to get something for the god. He told me what it was, but I can't remember. I don't think I was paying attention. As to how they got killed, I think they got sent here after they died in a war on their world, and the transportation process didn't work out too well, leaving them looking like zombies."

"You know," Finnick said "if it wasn't for the encounter I had with you at the prison, and the fact that I've known you for so long, I would say you are lying through your teeth."

"But I'm not Fin." Nick said, taking a sip from his drink. Man, that lemon was good. Not quite as good as blueberries though. "I'm for real here. Me and Judy met up with the god, whose name is Nunties, or something like that, after we caught him following us. Turns out, he had been expecting us to catch him."  
"Why was he following you guys?"  
"Cause we had an extreme encounter with the supernatural. So extreme, our car got totaled."  
"So what are you? Marked or something?"  
Nick was a little taken aback by this question. It had never occurred to him that they might be marked because of their close encounter. What if they were? He would have to speak to Nunties, or Nundy, or whatever his name was, about this.

"You know, Fin. I don't know. I never thought about it. Maybe we are. I'll have to ask."

"When will that be?"  
"At 3 or so tomorrow. Were you not listening at the prison?"  
"No, not really. I didn't know what was going on, didn't see the point in listening."

Nick nodded. Made sense to him. "I'll let you know what he says."

"Wonderful." Said Finnick as he finished off his second ginger ale.

"So, what was the name of that girl? The one who went off to Coastal?" Nick asked.

"Darla."  
"Darla? She country?"

"Sort of. Her parents own Happy Poultry."  
Nick gave Finnick a look that said "And you let her get away?!"

Happy Poultry was one of the top five poultry suppliers for the three Zootopias: Coastal Zootopia, Zootopia, and Mountain Zootopia.

Each city was there for the needs of different types of mammals. Most mammal could live in any city, however, there were some, such as whales and other aquatic mammals who needed the ocean to survive, or who highly preferred the natural mountains. There was a limit to things that could be replicated.

Finnick noticed Nick's accosting look.

"She said she had urgent business down there. Said it would take a while to clear up." Finnick tried to make himself sound confident, but he failed. For all he knew she could have found someone else and lied about it. "I think it had something to do with the shipping part of their business."  
"Uh-huh."

"Look man, there was nothing I could do." Finnick said angrily. "So get off my case."

"Ok ok. I'm sorry."

Finnick sighed and looked longingly at his cup. He wanted another rum. "It's alright. It's just been a long year and a half or so."

They sat in silence for a few minutes, neither sure what to say. Finnick was fidgeting with his empty cup, then he spoke up and surprised Nick with a question.

"How are you and Judy doing?"

"Good. Thank you for asking."  
"Any thoughts about how you are going to have kids? If you want any that is."

"Funny you should ask that. We were just talking about it a couple days ago. We've got two options. Artificial Insem, or that procedure that somehow makes our DNA compatible enough to have kids. We're probably going with the later."  
"Wow, isn't that like, expensive?" Finnick asked.

Nick rolled his eyes. "Duh. Hugely. But it would be worth it."  
"Yeah, I guess." Finick said. He sighed again. He really wanted that rum. He raised his hand and caught the bartender's attention.

"Another ginger ale?" She asked when she got to the table.

"No, another rum _with_ ginger ale."

The vixen looked at Nick. Nick gave a slight nod.

"Ok, be back in a sec hon." She said.

Nick let the silence linger until after she had brought Fin his drink before asking;

"What's eating you Fin? Is not having a girlfriend getting to you that much?"

"Yes! It gets so lonely now. I hear about you and Judy in the news every now and again, and it makes me jealous. Seeing folks walk hand in hand on the sidewalks doesn't help either."

Nick was quiet. He hadn't realized how much his leaving Fin on his own conning had affected him so much. Fin had always been a rather quiet mammal, and not the easiest to get along with. But Nick knew that underneath that gruff and sometimes rude exterior was a very large heart. One that needed filling, and Fin and never found that someone to fill it like Nick had.

Finnick continued. "And now that Steve is dead… I don't even know what to do. It took me six or seven months to become friends with him. And his girlfriend thinks his death is my fault." Fin looked ready to cry. He downed his drink in one gulp.

" _Definitely no more for him_." Nick thought.

"Ah man. I didn't realize it was that bad." Nick said. He wasn't sure what else to say. This kind of thing wasn't his forte.

"How 'bout on my next couple days off, which I think are in five days, we go hang out like old times. Without the swindling of course."  
"What would we do?" Finnick asked. He speech was definitely slurred. The drinks were finally getting to him.

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe go down to the docks on the river and fish, like we used too. Or maybe try something new, like hiking."  
"Hiking?"  
"Yeah, hiking. I never did do much of it. We could make it a regular thing. Go hike all the trails around here. Maybe even hike some of the Andelopean trail."

Finnick didn't reply right away, but Nick could tell that his attitude had improved, just from something simple as a suggestion to go hiking together.

"Ok. Let's do that." He said after a minute.  
"What, the hiking?"  
"Yeah. I never was much of a hiker either. Might be fun."  
"Awesome. It'll be just you and me. Judy'll be fine on her own for a little while. Not like we got kids or anything." Nick said. "Which trail you want to try first?"  
"How would I know? I don't know any of the hills or trails around here."  
"Oh duh. Ok then, I'll just pick one."  
"Sounds good to me.

Nick looked at his watch.

"Daang, it's nearly 10:45." He said.

" _How on earth did three and a half hours go by so quickly?"_ he thought.

He looked around. The bar and slowly filled up with late people getting off from work. Most would probably still be here in a couple hours. _  
_"Yeah, Judy is probably wondering where you are." Said Fin.

"Well, she's expecting me to stay out late. It's just, man time flies."  
"Not for me." Said Fin.

"It will."  
"Maybe."

"You should go get some sleep Fin. I think those drinks are starting to get to you."  
As if on cue, Fin hiccupped.

"Yeah, I think your right."

Fin extricated himself from the booth and stood beside the table, using it to steady himself. Nick quickly followed suit, laying down a ten as a tip for the vixen.

"Don't worry about the drink Fin, they're on me.'  
"You sure?" asked Fin.

"Yes. Go get some sleep. You need it."  
"Yeah, I guess I do." Then he added, "I'm sorry Nick."  
"For what?" Nick asked, concern in his voice.

"For being such an asshole today."  
"Oh don't worry about it bud. You've had a lot happen, and I haven't exactly been the best of friends to you lately either."

"Yeah but,"  
"No buts. Now go home and get some sleep. Speaking of home, did you walk here?"  
"Yes."  
"So did I. I'll walk you home."

Before Finnick could protest Nick said;  
"Look, you're a little drunk and its dark. I'm going to walk you home. It's not far. Call it a 'police escort'."  
Finnick nodded. "ok." He said.

Nick paid the tab, then he and Finnick left the now fairly crowded bar and into the cool night air. The walk to Finnick's relatively new apartment building only took about 15 minutes.

"Night Fin," said Nick in the lobby. "We'll figure out which day'll work best for hiking in the morning alright?"

"Ok. See ya, Nick."

Nick sighed as he walked back outside. He had a good half an hour to walk back to his own apartment. He wondered what Judy was doing.

" _Probably watching a something."_ He thought. _"Maybe even asleep."_

He would have to be quiet when he walked in, just in case.  
Nick was almost home when he suddenly realized how tired he was. It had been a long day. So much stuff had happened. He couldn't wait to climb into bed. He could just feel Judy's warmth beside him.

" _MMMHMM."_ He thought.

It turned out that Judy was in bed and watching something. She was using Nick's iPad as a tv.

"How'd it go with Fin?" She asked after he had gotten into bed and the lights had been turned out.

"Good." He said. "I'll explain better tomorrow my love. I'm just too tired right now."  
Judy kissed him the cheek and said "Ok slick. Goodnight."  
"Goodnight Carrots."

 **No, I have not let the story die. Sorry for the long publish time on this chapter. It's just been such a busy past couple of weeks.**

 **I am also sorry for its shortness. This chapter was just a way to give Finnick a bigger part in the story. I might write him into it more in later chapters, I'm not sure.**

 **Next chapter will pick up from the tank crew's perspective.**

 **AS always, I would love to hear from my readers, so please, leave a review.**

 **Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I have to admit, I had fun writing it.**

 **Signing off,**

 **Erwin.**


	10. Chapter 9

**Chapter 10.**

"Ulex, turn left at onto this road!" Oster called through the turret hatch.

Oster and the tank crew had left the old train tunnel earlier that afternoon. After having spent the entire morning with a couple of shovels and a pick ax clearing the pile of rock, mud, and trees out of their way. What a task that was.

Now, they were a couple of kilometers past the other side of the mountain they had started up a few days ago, searching for a better hiding spot. Oster wished that the guy who had appeared to them had told them where to go. Instead, he had left them hanging.

After he had disappeared Dittmer had gone a little further into the tunnel, trying to find where he had come from. Thank God he did because only a few hundred feet further in was a small room, probably a controller's room, with an old map tacked up on the wall. The room looked like it had been all set up to be used, but then had never actually been used. There were things that were still in cardboard delivery boxes, and there was this strange box with a screen wrapped in clear plastic sitting on a small desk.

The date in the map's key said that it was almost 40 years old. The map covered an area roughly 500 square kilometers, in the middle of which was a large town that none of them had ever heard of before Nuntius told them about it called Zootopia.

"What type of name is that anyway?" Rimsky had asked. "What is it, a zoo?"  
"I bet it is." Dittmer had replied.

It was this map that Oster was now using to navigate to one of the six small towns that were arranged in a half circle around the city. The key said that all except one was were abandoned, so Oster had decided one of them would make a better hiding spot than the tunnel.

Thankfully the one that was still inhabited, called Bunny Burrow, was the farthest away at few hundred kilometers or so.

" _Bunny Burrow? Gah, this place is weird."_ He thought.

He picked the closest one, called Coniston. It was only about 25 kilometers away from the big city. Close, but not so close that he felt he would be found by accident. Just before they left Oster scratched their destination with his pocket knife on a spent shell casing and left it in the middle of the tunnel, just in case Nuntius came back looking for them.

Ulex yanked the left track locking lever and the tank spun on its axes to face down the badly over grown road, leaving a large rut in the ground. If it wasn't for the map, Oster wouldn't have known to look for it. It had clearly not been used in a very long time.

"We shouldn't have to turn off this road at all. The map says it goes straight to our destination."

"Roger that," said Vaerst. Then he asked, "What are we going to do when we get there sir?"

"Find a spot to hide the tank. Duh. This time though, one with at least two entrance/exits."

Vaerst nodded, not that it mattered, Oster couldn't see him.

They drove in silence for the first couple of kilometers, listening to the squeal of the tracks and the gentle throb of the engine. They were still processing that they were probably not on earth anymore. Vaerst especially. He was the most emotional of them, as they had all discovered that morning when he had woken them all up because of a dream.

None of them wanted to admit it, but they were all scared. You could see it in their eyes. _"What if we never find the gem? What if this Nuntius guy is full of crap? What if we're stuck here forever?"_ were just some of the questions running through their heads. But no one voiced them.

Vaerst, in particular, was having a hard time. He was the only one who still struggling with accepting his new body. The others had quickly gotten used to it, and Rimsky even liked it. He said it was "Like something from a real-life horror story."

Without meaning too, Nuntius had triggered a deep sense of loneliness amongst the crew, almost like a wet wool blanket. If what Nuntius had said about this place being another world were humans did not exist was true, and they believed it was, then that meant that they were alone. It was the same feeling that, unknown to them, the three crew of Apollo 13 would feel 28 years later back in their universe when they were on the opposite side of the moon and completely out of contact with the rest of humanity. Even Rimsky felt it. Hopefully, he would find the shell casing.

"How far away is this place?" Ulex asked through the mic, breaking the long silence.

"Ummm, about 30 kilometers from where we are." Said Oster looking at the map and the surroundings, "The road goes in a long curve following the mountain."

"We got a long-term plan for when we get there?" Dittmer asked?  
"I guess try to find the gem." Replied Oster. "I'm thinking we hide the tank, then use this map and go around on foot. Much quieter than driving this around."  
"But what if we get into trouble?"

"We'll think of something. I want to give Nuntius some time to find us once we get there, so we will have time to make plans. Don't worry."

Everyone acknowledged, then settled down for the slow trip to their new hideout.

* * *

Nuntius practically had to drag the goat to the porch of his home. He wasn't responding to anything he said, meaning the only way he could get him to do anything was by physically forcing him to.

It had only taken a second to teleport him back to Domus, the crafters home planet and town. There, Nuntius had left the undead goat, whose name he was pretty sure was Felix, roped to a stone pillar at his house before going out into the small village and gathering the nine other crafters for a meeting on the hill, whose name was Illud Conceptus, or The Origination Point. They often shortened it to just the Conceptus.

The hill were the crafters held their important meetings was ancient, more ancient than time itself even, and every time that Nuntius had to visit it he couldn't help but recall the stories that Primus had told them all. The hill was the place where the first crafter, Primus had simply appeared, fully grown on it's top. Back then, it was just the Illud Conceptus. The hill was very tall and flat at its top, like what one of the pyramids the Humans had built would look like if it had had the top fourth neatly chopped off. Primus had said that before he had created the planet that the hill was now a part of, that it's bottom was surrounded by clouds.

But not normal clouds, these clouds seemed to be alive, and there were two distinct types. The Lights and the Darks. These two would come and go, sometimes Primus would wake up and see nothing but the white clouds, as far out as the Shroud, the farthest Primus could see. Other times it would be mostly black clouds, with the white clouds regulated to just the base of the hill. No matter what happened, the white clouds were always there, but sometimes it seemed that the black clouds would disappear, only to return the next light cycle.

Primus had speculated to the other crafters - each of who would just appear on top of Illud Conceptus - that these clouds, who he had name the Causa, were what had created each of them. Now, once he had made the small planet that the hill was a part of, the clouds had gone away.

Primus was on his own for a long time. During this time, he created many other planets and systems using his ability to out into the vast nothingness past the Shroud. But Primus could not put any living thing on these planets. So they were left bare and rocky, with massive oceans and equally massive expanses of rock, for a long time.

Then one morning, as he had termed the ending of the darkness and the starting of the light, another thing like himself appeared on top of the hill. This thing was very similar to him, but they discovered that he could make something that Primus didn't even know he was missing: Wind. Atmospheres, gasses, and to top it off, light. Now, not the same type of light that Primus was used to. No, this light was very different. It was warm, and if you left something out in it too long it would get hot and difficult to handle without first letting it cool off.

At first, neither of them could find a practical application for any of this. They had no need of it on their small world, and none of the places Primus had created had anything living on them. But then one day another being showed up, whom they named Arator. This being gave that light and those atmospheres and winds a practical use. She made living things. Things that could harvest the heat and energy given off by the light that Tempesta had created, and use it to interact with those atmospheres, even going so far as to change them.

This was when Primus realized that he should give him and his group a name.

"We create things," he said one evening to the other two. "Therefore, I think we should be named accordingly. I hereby declare that we should be called The Crafters." From then on, that's what they were called.

Their numbers grew, as did the variety of their abilities. The 4th one of them, Vita, could create more sentient beings than could Arator. These beings could eat the things Arator had made. He also created things that could eat what he had created. These were eventually called animals, and the things they ate as plants.

Vita's beings were missing something though. They didn't know that they existed. They acted purely out of instincts. Instincts which Vita didn't even endow them with but instead came with them. They were not sentient.

Then came Misericors. Misericors was different. She was the only one who could create beings who were sentient. Beings who didn't simply act out of instinct but instead would think through things, reason about which decisions were best, things like that. However, like her, like all the Crafters, her creations were flawed. They were inherently bad. Maliciousness. They would sometimes turn against themselves and kill thousands of each other in large wars.

Yet, over time, the sentient beings of different planets learned to cope with their inherent badness. They set up laws and regulations and organized themselves into one of two types of organization.

The first category was for those who set up lots of different nations, or countries, with their own sets of laws and cultures. These nations would usually coexist peacefully with each other. However, there were always some nations who spurned that peace and who wanted to take over their neighbors.

The second category was for those sentient beings who organized themselves into a few massive cities that relied on each other for resources. Zootopia, Nuntius knew, mostly fell into this latter category even though it still wasn't quite all the way there yet.

Back to the Crafters. Nuntius was the 6th being to appear on the hill. He had very little powers of creation. Yes, he could make small objects and fill up coffee cups, but he was not a true Crafter. His role took longer to figure out then did the others, but it was finally learned when it was discovered that he could transform himself into whatever sentient being that Misericors had created, and that he could teleport without the use of specially created and extremely difficult to learn magic which left behind much larger and easier to follow trails in the gel. Therefore, they assigned him the role of liaison between them and the sentient beings of the other planets.

Nuntius was also a detective of sorts. The others relied on his greater sense of awareness of his surroundings to help find someone or something that needed finding.

For a while that was it. The six of them existed seemingly to make new worlds, so that is what they did. Worlds would come and go, some would die out because of old age. Others would die because they weren't made properly. And Nuntius would be sent to all of them at one point or another to check up on them.

Then one day another being appeared on the hill. As Primus called it, it was the day that the black clouds were finally able to get a being of their own. At first, they all thought he was like them, good. But that was quickly learned to not be the case. During his short stay Fallax, as he would become known, became such a troublemaker that he was banished to a world that had no life on it other than plants. It had no life specifically so that he could not cause them grief. But this did not stop Fallax.  
It was quickly learned that Fallax had the ability to teleport as well without using magic when he appeared a few days later back on the hill. He was quickly apprehended and bound in such a way to a pole that even with his ability, he could not escape. Then a meeting of the other five was called.

There it was decided they could not keep him from visiting the worlds they created. It was simply to monumental of a task. However, they could keep him from coming back to theirs. By creating a cloaking spell so powerful that the only way you would ever find the world was by physically running into it, Primus and the others hid Domus so that Fallax would not be able to teleport back to it once they had caught him and erased its location from his memory.

It worked. But that still left him to the other planets and protecting them was the job of the 8th being to show up on the hill. Bellator. Bellator was given the task of keeping Fallax away from important places on all the worlds. To do that, he needed an army, but not a normal, mortal, army. Bellator created his own. These beings that he created were incapable of feeling most emotions, and they were always armed to the teeth, be it by physical weapon or by spell knowledge, they were pretty good at doing their job. For the most part, anyway.

Bellator was the peacekeeper of the Crafters. He was the one that they called on whenever they needed a dispute settled amongst themselves, or whenever something catastrophic was going to happen on one the worlds. They would send him to try to stop it with force. But Bellator needed someone to balance him out. Someone who could stop things through negotiation. And so Pacisci appeared.

Pacisci could not create any living things whatsoever, so she was used more sparingly then one might think, so as not to wear her out. Pacisci had the ability to calm most anyone down and could help two parties work out the best solution to their problems. Of the times that she was sent in to calm something down, 95% were successfully worked out peacefully. The other 5% needed Bellator to come in, which usually meant one species or country wasn't going to make it.

Last but not least of the beings to appear was Messor, the reaper. Messor was very quiet, and hardly ever interacted with the others. Instead, he stayed on his own in a small stone house as far away from the hill as he could get. He always wore a dark hooded tunic that completely hid his face and that reached down to his ankles, with sleeves that went down to his wrists. His hands and feet were wrinkly and pale and everywhere he went he was followed by a draft of cold air.

None of them knew how he dealt with the souls of the dead, and no one asked. Messor was gone for long periods of time, only coming back when called for a meeting, or for the rare visit to his secluded house and conduct business of his own.

Thus were the Crafters, the beings that Nuntius gathered together on top of the Conceptus at the small amphitheater to discuss what was going to be done about the goat and what information he might contain.

"Why have you called us together dear Nuntius?" Primus asked once they had all taken their seats, leaving Nuntius standing on the small stage holding the goat by a rope. "And why do you have that creature with you?"  
"It is this creature I wish to talk about." Said Nuntius in his normal voice. One would think he would have to speak loudly to be heard, but Illud Conceptus had a unique property to it that allowed anyone standing in the spot where the small stage had been built to speak in his or her normal voice and still be heard by anyone else on top of the hill, even if they were not close by.

"This goat has been resurrected by the gem." He said.

Misericors let out a small gasp, and a most of the others looked uncomfortable. All looked over at the dark figure of Messor sitting on his own on the other side of the half-circle of seats. He seemed not to notice. Only Bellator seemed to not be bothered by the presence of a dead one amongst them, after all, he sent many sentients to Messor, so he was used to death.

"Why did you bring him here?" Vita asked. "Did you want to make us uncomfortable?"

"Yes Vita, I went to all this trouble just to make you uncomfortable." Then he yelled "NO!"

The other crafters didn't take him all that seriously. After all, he didn't really have any special powers, except the teleportation. But even that was only marginally better than the magical form of it. That's why he spent as much time as possible out amongst the worlds.

Vita looked affronted and was about to say something when Primus said calmly: "So why did you bring him Nuntius?"

"There is a great chance he knows where Fallax has gone."

"How do you know that?" Pacisci asked.

Nuntius then went about explaining how he and three of the creatures on the planet that the gem had been sent to happened to stumble upon the place where Fallax had been hiding at first and how they had found the goat standing in the corner of the room.

He didn't tell them that he had lost track of the tank crew from Earth. No need to worry them more. Especially since they didn't even know that Messor had done that little favor for him. Speaking of that favor, he would have to speak to Messor about the second figure that the Zootopian had described. He didn't look to forward to that.

"I was thinking," he continued, "That it is possible he could have overheard Fallax and the other thing talking about where they were going to go when they left the prison."  
"Then why don't you just ask him?" Tempesta asked.

Tempesta was the only other one beside Primus who treated Nuntius like another Crafter, and Nuntius knew that he wasn't asking just to annoy him. Nuntius never really understood why the others treated him like that. They didn't treat Bellator and Pacisci like that, and he could do more than they could! Messor was treated indifferently. No one really wanted to interact with him and he seemed perfectly fine with it.

"Because, he does not answer to anyone except the one who raised him, or who the one who raised him gave him permission to listen too. If that makes sense."  
Tempesta nodded. He still looked a little confused though.

"So, I was wanting Misericors to see if she could get rid of that effect. She is, after all, the one who created the gem."

"Why didn't you just ask me in private then? Instead of calling everyone to the mount for a meeting." asked Misericors. Several others voiced their agreement with her.

"Because I know how you are Misericors. You are flaky." Misericors looked like someone had just killed her favorite pet. "You don't always try your best at things, even when they are important. The gem being one of those. If you had taken your time with it, then you would have worked out this flaw, along with a few others, and we wouldn't be having this meeting." He could hear several of the other Crafters agreeing with him. Even Primus nodded.  
Nuntius's confidence grew a little, and he straightened himself up a bit before continuing. "I want everyone here to hear what I have to say to Misericors." Then he turned back to her and said, "I want you to try your hardest to figure out a way to let this goat answer our questions."

"I…" she began but was cut off by Primus who said;

"Nuntius is right Misericors, you do have a tendency to only do things half-way, and when you do complete things, they are usually not done right. I want you to do this thing that he has asked."

"But that might not be possible!" Misericors said, anger mixed with dismay and resignation in her voice.

"We will find out soon enough." Said Primus calmly. Then he directed his next question to Nuntius.  
"Do you have a time frame you need this completed in?"  
Nuntius hesitated. He didn't want to rush Misericors anymore than he had too, but he had promised Nick and Judy that he would meet them in 24 hours, one of which had already gone by.

"Yes," he finally said. "I need it done in 23 hours."  
Misericors harrumphed, but Primus said, "That is a reasonable request. Do you think that you could have this done in that time Misericors?"  
Misericors didn't answer right away, but finally she said: "Yes, I believe it is possible."  
"Wonderful." Primus said. "Nuntius, you have her word. It will be done within the specified time."

Nuntius let out a breath that he didn't know he had been holding.

"Thank you, Primus."  
"Don't thank me Nuntius. Thank Misericors. She is the one who will be doing most of the work."  
"My apologies." Nuntius said to Primus, then turned to Misericors and said "Thank you for doing this for me. Yet, I can't help but feel though that all this could have been avoided if you only thought things through all that time ago."  
"How dare you!" Misericors said standing up.

"SIT DOWN!" Primus boomed, startling all of them. "This is not the time for petty squabbles." He looked hard at Nuntius and Misericors.  
Misericors sat back down looking like she was about to cry.

"Sorry, Primus. I did go to far."  
"Yes, you did. Next time, keep that sort of thing for when we are not discussing business."

Nuntius nodded. Misericors seemed not to hear, but Nuntius knew she had.

"I will be back here in 22 hours, to see her results." He said to Primus more than Misericors, who still looked a little ashen.

"We will be expecting you." Said Primus standing up.  
Everyone else stood up also and began shuffling off to their respective dwellings. Messor had already disappeared, and Nuntius feared that he had left the planet. But no, he was behind the theater, walking back to his little stone house.

"Messor!" Nuntius called as he ran to catch him, causing a couple of others to look at him like he was going crazy. Messor stopped and turned around. Nuntius shuddered. The darkness coming from under the hood always made him feel uncomfortable.

"Messor!" he said again when he reached him, stopping a couple feet away. "I have a question for you."  
Messor stood quietly, but Nuntius could tell by his now more erect posture that he was interested in what Nuntius had to ask. He didn't get questions all that often.

"Who was the other being with Fallax in the prison?"

"What do I get in return for telling you?" Messor asked in a voice that was as soft as silk and as cold as the Arctic. A voice that seemed to emanate from deep within the hood.

"Umm," Nuntius had not been expecting this. "What would you like?" He asked.

"The goat." Messor said immediately.

"The goat. Umm, I think I could arrange that."

"Are you sure Nuntius?" Messor asked. Nuntius did not like hearing his name like that. It gave him a weird sense of dread.

"Yes." He replied, even though he wasn't actually sure.

Messor regarded Nuntius for a few seconds before saying; "I trust you, Nuntius. The other being was from Earth. Like the ones you asked me to relocate."

"So, it's dead?" He asked.

"Yes, he was dead."  
"Who asked you to relocate him? Fallax?"  
"Yes, Fallax."

Nuntius could feel Messor's desire to be on his own. One could feel it by the drop in temperature around him. He shivered.

"Well, uh," Nuntius cleared his throat. "I should be going now. Thank you for that information."

Messor didn't say anything, and Nuntius turned around and hurriedly went back to the amphitheater, which had been cleared of everyone except Primus and Misericors, who was holding the rope that was tied around the goat.

"Misericors would like to tell you something about unlocking the goat." Said, Primus, when Nuntius had gotten back. He gestured at Misericors to begin.

"I have determined that the reversal of the effects of his "locking" as we will put it, can only be temporary."  
"How have you determined this so quickly?" Nuntius asked.

"I just know. The spells I put into the gem when I created it were designed to be irreversible. Luckily, we have come a long way since then and I know of a way to reverse them, but not permanently. "

"OK, so why are you telling me this?"

"Because we will need to be able to get a hold of you very quickly." Primus said before Misericors could.

"Seriously? That's what you needed to tell me? That's why we have the beacon."

The beacon was sort of like a radio. They could send voice messages over it at the speed of light. That might seem fast, but the distance between worlds negated that. The nearest world took at least an hour for the message to get there, and Zootopia was six times farther than that.  
"The beacon is to slow." Said Misericors. "It needs to be instant. Especially since I am not sure how long the effects will last. All I know is that it will take 9 or so hours to get the potions ready, and then another hour or so to apply them."

She reached into a small leather bag she always carried and pulled out two pink stones.

"These are something I have been working on for a while now, I've just never had a need to use them until now."

"What are they?" Nuntius asked skeptically. How could two small pink stones be used for anything?

"Hold out your hand." She said. Nuntius did as he was told, and Misericors placed one of the stones in his hand. It was cold and smooth, like marble.

"This will heat up and glow whenever I want you to come back. I'm not sure how it works, but I have had it tested on different worlds and I know that it is instant. Absolutely no delay."  
"Does it work both ways?" Nuntius asked.

"Yes, but I don't see why you would need to summon me."  
"I was just… curious."

"Well, this is yours to keep now. So maybe you will need it one day. Who knows."  
Nuntius looked at the stone in his hand and rubbed is fingers over it absentmindedly. Despite all appearances, he like Misericors. Of course, no one knew that, not even her. He was hoping that maybe this stone would open up new possibilities, not that he knew how it could.

"Ok." He said. Then he put the stone in his pocket. "Well, I need to head back over there. I have something I need to do." He was referring to finding the tank crew, but they didn't know that. Damn he wished he had told them were to go.

"Make sure to be on the lookout for when the stone glows Nuntius." Said Primus. "Don't get to distracted with what you are doing."  
"I won't, Primus." Nuntius replied.

"See you in 10 hours." Misericors said. Then she gave Nuntius a little wink.

Nuntius almost choked on his spit. "See you too." He managed.

Misericors then turned and walked back to her home, and Primus went back to a small grove of trees where he liked to go when he wanted to think about things, leaving Nuntius standing alone next to the amphitheater.

He decided that the next thing he should do was go back to the tunnel where he had first met the tank crew. Maybe, just maybe, they would still be there. If not, then they had hopefully left a note or something as to where they were going. If they even knew where they were going.

He didn't know Zootopia all that well. It was one of those worlds that none of them visited very often because nothing ever happened there. They were a mostly peaceful species, or more like group of species. They didn't need the Crafters to intervene in a war that threatened their existence, or in some natural disaster that could wipe them out. Even the planet was peaceful.

Except this one time. It wasn't all that long ago actually, and it eventually sorted itself out. But for a little while there the Crafters were thinking that they might have to intervene to help keep things the way they were. Thankfully however, two mammals were able to catch on to what was happening and stop it just before it got out of hand and no intervention was required.

Nuntius closed his eyes and was about to go to the tunnel when a wave of fatigue washed over him. He hadn't slept in a couple of days, and now that he was back on (HOME WORLD) it caught up with him. He opened his eyes and looked at his watch. Something he set to whatever time it was on the planet he was working on. It said that it was 11 o'clock back on Zootopia. He could take a few hour nap and still be able to get over there in time. Plus, it would mean less waiting while Misericors did her stuff.

He sighed and walked back to his humble abode. He had modeled it after something that the ancient Greeks had built back on earth. It was a much scaled down version of something they called the Parthenon. Except, He hadn't put the pillars going all the way around. Instead, he had just put them in the front to hold up the porch roof.

The inside was sparsely furnished. Nuntius was always traveling, so he never got around to filling it with furniture. However, it did have a very comfortable bed which he laid down on, not bothering to take off his clothes. He set a mental timer to go off in seven hours then promptly fell asleep.

Seven hours later a splitting headache woke him. He sat up and moaned. Then slowly got off the bed and walked over a mirror hanging above a stone wash basin and splashed himself with water making the headache went away. The headache was the alarm. It only went away when he splashed himself with water, which assured he was actually out of the bed. It was very effective. The sun, or whatever it was that made the day/night cycle on their home planet function was just beginning to rise.

Nuntius stood on his porch and watched it for a little while. He sighed. He wished he could stay here all day, but there was work that needed doing. Specifically finding the tank crew before they got into to any more trouble. Which meant going back to the tunnel.

Nuntius closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The air around him gave a whooshing sound, then all went quiet, leaving nothing except a weird pressure on his head. Then the whooshing sound came back, and the pressure went away, allowing him to open his eyes to the darkness of the cool damp tunnel.

It only took him a couple seconds to realize the tank was gone, even though it was pitch black. It would have been difficult to miss. He sighed. He figured they would have left by now. But where had they gone? He lit up his hand, like the time when he first met with the tank crew and was just about to sit on a small boulder that had fallen from the roughhewn ceiling when a glint of gold on the ground caught his eye.

It came from closer to the entrance and was in the middle of the rusty tracks. His spirits soared. Maybe they had left him something! Now he wouldn't have to go looking for them. That was not something he was looking forward too.

Nuntius walked over to the object laying on its side on the ground. It was pretty big, about the length of a baseball bat, and made of bronze. One end was skinnier than the other. Nuntius was pretty sure he knew what this was. It was a shell casing or something like that. He was pretty sure that it usually had something stuck in the skinny end.

Not that it mattered. All that mattered was the letters etched into its side. A message.

"Gone to Coniston." was all it said.

" _Coniston."_ Nuntius thought, shuffling the casing around in his hands. _"If they know where it is, then it shouldn't be too hard to find."_

He walked to the entrance of the tunnel and stopped. The light coming through the trees left weird shadows on the ground. Hidden birds sang their songs from the surrounding trees. It was all very peaceful. Amazing how things could feel so normal, even though something was working hard change what that normal was. Something he couldn't let happen.

"Welp!" he said out loud to the birds and trees. "Where is Coniston?"

Nothing answered. Of course. So he thought for a second.

"I got it!" he said snapping his fingers. He knew where to get a map.

Seconds later he was standing in the parking lot of the gas station where they met with that small fox back in his wolf form and wearing the suit and hat. A neon sign in the station door declared they were open. Inside smelled like stale cigarettes and beer, with something else Nuntius couldn't quite pen down. The proprietor was sitting on a stool behind a counter piled high with lottery ticket dispensers and a glass show case that held a bunch of colorfully decorated glass pipes.

The tinkling of a bell on the door had alerted the mammal on the stool. An older llama who looked like he would have been quite the partier back in his day.

"Hey man. What can I do for you?" he said standing up.

"I need a map."

"A map? Of what?" the llama asked.

"To a place called Coniston." Said Nuntius.

The llama regarded him like he was a little off his rocker.

"Coniston's been mostly abandoned for something like 50 or so years now man. Why do you need to go there?"  
Nuntius didn't let this surprise show. Especially since the more thought he gave it the more it made perfect sense for the tank crew to go to an abandoned city. Easy to hide in.

"I was wanting to make a documentary about it."  
"About Coniston?" the llama said.

"Yes."  
"And you don't know where it is."  
"Correct."  
"Why don't you just use your phone?"

This line of questioning was not something Nuntius had planned for, and he didn't have any good answers for it. So he said;

"Do you have a flippin map on how to get there or not?" he leaned on the counter and said in his most threatening voice. "Because if you don't, you would have been wasting my time. And I don't like it when people waste my time.  
"Hey now man." The llama said backing away from the counter. "I was just wondering. Curious."  
"You know what they said about curiousness don't you?"  
"No what?"  
"It killed the cat."

The llama looked at Nuntius like he was crazy. Then he shuffled around behind the counter and pulled out a large folded up road map and laid it on the counter.

"I've had these in inventory for a long time now. They're the last ones that were made with the old towns on them. Back when there were still a few diehards living in them. Ain't no one still use them anymore. They use their phones."

"Does it show me how to get to Coniston?"  
"Yeup."  
"How much?" Nuntius said.

"Nothin. It's free. It ain't worth the time it takes to ring it up on the register."

Nuntius nodded and picked up the thick folded map. It was definitely old. The paper was crinkly and stiff as a board and it had that smell of old ink. It was not how he wanted to get to Coniston, but since he had never seen a place inside Coniston, or a picture of it, he couldn't use his teleportation. Only Primus could go somewhere without ever having seen it.

"Thanks." He said and walked for the door.

"No problem." Said the llama. "Hey, you aren't from around here are you?"

Nuntius paused just as he was opening the door.

"No."  
"Where you from then?" the llama asked.

Nuntius thought for a second.

"Everywhere." He said, then walked out before the llama could respond.

He checked his watch. It was still early morning. Plenty of time left before the meeting, and it had only been about an hour and a half since he had gotten the stones. Nuntius walked to the side of the station building to where he was out of sight of anyone going into the front door and began to unfold the map.

It took him a couple of minutes to find Coniston and the very large map of Zootopia and the surrounding area. Turned out, Coniston wasn't all that far away. Only about 25 kilometers or so. Now how was he going to get there quickly?  
He folded the map up so he could think. The only thing he could think of was jogging. Or going back into town and stealing a car. That wasn't his style though. Or maybe he could go back to town to hire a taxi.

" _Nah."_ He thought. He didn't want anyone else asking why he was going out there. Jogging it was then.

Nuntius was a good jogger. He could go for very long distances without pausing, so he wasn't worried about it. A suit though was not the thing you run in, so he created a new set of running clothes and ditched the suit and hat. He could make another one later.

It took him about two hours to get to Coniston. Coniston was a small town, and it was surrounded by dark forest, giving it an eerie feeling. The heavily overgrown road Nuntius took to enter the town opened up onto a not quite so overgrown main street surrounded on both sides by brick buildings.

Trees were growing up through the road, and some of the buildings looked like they were about to split in the middle and slide into the street. Street lamps stood forlornly over the sidewalks that no one walked on anymore, waiting for the day when someone would come back and turn the back on.

But there were signs of someone having been there recently. At the other end of main street another road led off into the thick forest. Leading from that road to a road that went between two buildings was a set of tracks. But not just any tracks. These were clearly made by the tank. The impressions made by its track links were clear, even in the churned up old asphalt.

" _This was a lot easier than I thought it would be."_ Nuntius thought.

He picked his way through the undergrowth to the road the tracks went down. A fallen signpost said this was once Haltiwanger street. The tracks went straight down Haltiwanger, which ended at a T intersection with another street. Here the tracks continued straight. Right into an old warehouse with a large hanger style sliding door.

Nuntius laughed. This was turning out to be way to easy. He started walking down the street, towards the warehouse when a voice called out;  
"HALT!"

Nuntius froze. He heard a shuffling coming from a small dead-end alley to his right.

"It's me. Nuntius!" he called out.

"Who?" the voice said again, though this time with a little less nervousness.

"Nuntius! Are you with the tank crew?"

More shuffling, then two figures walked out from the darkened alley.

"Holy wiener schnitzel are we glad to see you." The one on the right said as he put away his pistol.

 **Ok folks here is chapter 10. I am sorry for the delay in getting this one out.**

 **Golly, this one took a while to write. I hate having to get timing and everything right. I think that it was one of the hardest aspects of writing, making sure that all the times and things line up in the different chapters. If you find any discrepancies with the timing, let me know, and I will try to fix it.**

 **Otherwise, what did you think of this chapter? I said I was going to focus on the tank crew more, but then I got the idea to come from Nuntius's POV for a change. Coming up with names for everyone is hard to, but it's actually kind of fun.**

 **As always, I would love to hear from you readers, and if you have any ideas or suggestions or simple just observations I would love to hear them.**

 **I hope you enjoyed, and thank you for reading.**

 **Signing off,**

 **Erwin.**

 **PS. Me and a fellow fanficitoner are doing a collab entitled "The Eschaton". Its on his account, under SpookorSpectre.**


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 11**

Rimsky walked out from shadows of the alley, followed closely by Dittmer. Nuntius immediately caught a whiff of something foul, like burned flesh. It took him a couple of seconds to realize that it was coming from the two tank crewman, and when he did he had to force himself not to recoil.

" _How the heck did I not smell this in the tunnel?"_ he thought.

Rimsky interrupted his thoughts "We weren't sure if you would come back for us. Oster left you a note of sorts, but still. I bet you can figure out where the tank is." he said, gesturing with the hand that held the pistol to the shed/warehouse structure with the obvious tracks leading to it.

"Oh yes, I found the 'note'." Nuntius replied, relaxing and quickly getting over the smell. When he had first heard the "Freeze!" command, he had nearly sent some stun bolts their way. He wasn't the type to kill without sound reason.

" _Good thing I've got good self-control."_ He thought.

"Took me a little detective work to get here though." He continued out loud.

Rimsky nodded as he walked the couple meters over to the shed's barn type doors and gave them a few hard bangs. Dittmer didn't follow him and stood just outside the alley entrance quietly watching Nuntius. Nuntius got the feeling that he didn't trust him.

"Hey commander!" Rimsky yelled after banging on the doors. "That guy is here! The one you left the note for!"  
"It's Nuntius."  
"Huh?" Rimsky said turning to Nuntius.  
"My name is Nuntius."  
"Oh." He said. Then yelled at the door again "Nuntius! That's his name!"

"This is going to have to be a quick meeting guys." Said Nuntius as clanking noises emanated from inside the shed.

"Why's that?" asked Dittmer.

Before he could answer, the shed door noisily rumbled opened and out stepped the rest of the crew. Behind them, the front half of the tank loomed out of the shadows of the shed. It looked like a monster, just waiting to be unleashed. To either side of it was about a meter of clear space.

Two of the crew, Ulex and Vaerst, stood in front of the vehicle, partially blocking it, and staying under the shed's roof. Oster walked out in front. Rimsky went back to Dittmer, who was still behind Nuntius, but no longer in the alley entrance.

The fowl meat smell suddenly became overwhelming. Nuntius flinched before he could catch himself. Oster noticed

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Nothing." Nuntius said quickly. Too quickly.

"Something's wrong. You flinched when we stepped out. Are we that hideous looking?"

"It's just, uh, the smell. You smell like rotting meat." Nuntius closed his eyes. This had gotten awkward very fast. He did not like awkward situations.

Oster and the other two behind him were quiet. Nuntius could almost feel their eyes boring holes into him. The quiet lasted for at least half a minute, during which the only sounds where the weird wet sounding noises the crew made every time they breathed. Even the birds were silent, and the wind was still. Finally, Oster said:

"So, you can smell it too."

His tone wasn't as harsh as Nuntius had expected. Instead, it sounded almost sad, resigned almost. He opened his eyes. Oster had taken his cap off and started playing with it. Behind him, Vaerst let out a grunt. The others were quiet.

"Yes. Like rotting meat."

"Well," Oster sighed a long, wet sigh. "If you can smell us, then others can smell us. We might be found."

This was not what Nuntius had expected to be the first thing he would say, but he wasn't going to complain. He thanked his lucky stars and said:

"I don't think you have to worry about that. I only smelled you when I could see you. I would have totally missed those two if they hadn't said anything." He gestured behind him at Rimsky and Dittmer.

"I am Herr Rimsky to you, and that is Herr Dittmer." Rimsky said, obviously annoyed at having been called "Those two".

"Sorry, Rimsky and Dittmer." Nuntius corrected himself.

"Herr Rimsky and Dittmer." Rimsky said.

Nuntius was about to reply when Oster cut him off.

"That's enough Rimsky." He said sternly. Rimsky went quiet.

"You found us faster than I thought you would." Oster said.

Nuntius was relieved to be done talking about the smell.

"Oh?" he said.

"Yeah. We just left that tunnel. I thought it would take you at least a day or two to find us."

"It would have if you hadn't left that uh, note." Said Nuntius.

Oster smiled. His burned skin causing his teeth to leave impressions where the skin was drawn taught by the smile. That smile gave Nuntius the creeps. What on earth had Messor done to these people?

"I wondered if you'd get that." Oster said. "I got the idea from something back on earth. I think it was some settlers who went missing in America. Left one word on a tree."

"I didn't know you remembered that story captain!" Rimsky said from behind Nuntius.

"Yup, for once you and your dumb history lessons came in handy."

Rimsky frowned at his little history lessons being called dumb, but he was obviously pleased that Oster had remembered.

"Why don't you two come around here, it's rude to be speaking from behind our guest."

" _Guest?"_ Nuntius thought _. "What a weird thing to call me."_

He heard gravel crunch and a few seconds later Rimsky and Dittmer took up positions near their captain. Vaerst and Ulex quickly joined them.

"How did you learn about this place?" Nuntius asked, gesturing to the decrepit buildings and overgrown roads.

"A map." Said Ulex. "Dittmer found an old one in a small room further down the tunnel. We think it was the track monitors booth."

"Ah. Well, it took me forever to get here."  
"Sorry about that." Ulex said in a voice that didn't relay any sympathy.

"So, what do you want us to do exactly? You never really answered that last time." Oster asked, walking over to the shed door, leaning against it and crossing his arms. He looked relaxed, but Nuntius could tell he would be able to jump into action in a split second. This was not a guy he would want to cross if he was a mere mortal.

"And why did you say this was going to have to be a quick meeting?" asked Dittmer.

"Because, I have to meet some people, I mean mammals, soon. As a matter of fact, I might have you meet them."

Oster raised an eyebrow. Actually, it was more like he just moved some skin over his eye, as all the hair on his head and face was gone.

"And who might they be?"

"A pair of police officers."  
At this, everyone let out some form of a derisive noise. It was obvious they did not like the idea of coming in contact with the police. Especially after having crushed a couple of their vehicles and blowing a hole in the road.

"The Gestapo?" Vaerst asked quietly.

"No Vaerst, not the Gestapo." Oster said with annoyance. "This isn't Germany."

Vaerst didn't say anything.

"I think you will like them." Continued Nuntius. "The mammals around here are quite kind, these two in particular."

"What about the smell? The smell of meat." Ulex asked, speaking up for the first time.

"I'll deal with that." Said Nuntius. "But I don't think it will be too much of a problem."

Oster nodded and started rubbing his chin, as if in deep thought.

"I'm guessing you want us to stay here until you have met with these police?" he asked.

"That is correct." Replied Nuntius. "I don't want to have to come looking for you again, and because of some recent developments, I no longer need you to go search for the gem. Instead, I will need you to help me get it."

"Ah, so you have found it?" Oster said, hope in his eyes.

"Not exactly."

The hope went away, replaced by that distant look that they had always had.

"But I have a source who will tell us. We just have to do some things first. It won't be too long, a day or two at most."

The hope came back.

"And you will get us when it's time?"

"Yes."  
"What if it's far away?" Ulex asked. "Will you make us drive? Or will you do some magic? If we drive, it'll be slow."

"It's nearby. I'm sure of it. But if it isn't then yes, I could work something out to have you teleported."

Ulex nodded. Driving for long distance in the Panzer IV was not the most comfortable of things.

For a few minutes, the six of them just stood there looking at each other. The eerie silence of the long-abandoned town was not something Nuntius was fond of. Sometimes a breeze would spring up and rustle the tree leaves, but if it blew right, the rotting meat smell washed over him and left him queasy. He cleared his throat.

"Well, I should be going now." He said. He still had a couple hours till Misericors's time window expired, but he didn't really want to stick around. Especially since he didn't really know what to talk about.

"You're leaving so soon?" Rimsky asked.

"Yes. I have some other business I have to attend to."

"Such as?" Oster asked, raising the skin above his eye again. Nuntius wondered if he knew how creepy that looked, the way it made the rest skin on that side of his face taught.

"It concerns the lead to the gem's whereabouts. That's all I'll say."

The others all looked at him skeptically, but there wasn't anything they could do to stop him leaving so Oster just said:  
"Good luck then, Herr Nuntius. Get us to that gem as soon as you possibly can. We want to see our families again."  
"Don't worry, it won't be much longer." Nuntius replied. He looked at his watch. Still few hours till the meeting with the fox and rabbit. Nick and something. He couldn't remember her name. And, as if on queue, he felt something warm against his right leg, the leg that was behind the pocket that he had put the pink stone in. Even though he knew the warmth meant that it had been activated, he still took it out to see if it was glowing. It was.

"Well, it seems I doubly have to go now."

The tank crew were non-plussed by the appearance of the glowing pink stone. Nuntius had the feeling they were forever going to be hard to surprise. It seemed like almost as if they had no souls. Maybe that's what Messor did to the dead, take their souls. He didn't like thinking about it too much though.

"Goodbye Herr Nuntius." Said Oster. The others echoed him. Nuntius shivered. Gah, they were creepy.

However, without further ado, he closed his eyes and visualized Misericors's home. The whooshing sound came and went, leaving the pressure. Then it came and went again, and the pressure went away. He opened his eyes to find himself standing in front of Misericors's front door.

He walked up to the door. He was about to knock when he remembered the wink Misericors gave him before he went for the tank crew. He wondered if Primas or anyone else was going to be with them. He really did not want anything awkward to happen.

The hesitation quickly passed though, and he knocked three loud knocks on the hardwood door. They were answered within seconds.

Before he could utter a sound, Misericors grabbed his arm and pulled him inside.

"Shhhhhh!" she said.

"What the heck?" Nuntius whispered. "Something going on?"  
"Yes!" Misericors whispered back harshly. "That goat you brought in, I broke the binding aspect of the gem, and as soon as I did, he attacked me. I beat him off, and ran out of the spell room and locked him in. He's just standing in there quietly."

"The spell room? Isn't there a window in that room?"

Misericors suddenly looked like she had been slapped.  
"Yes there is! And its easily big enough for him to fit through. But I don't think he could go through it, it has bars."

Nuntius didn't wait for her to say anymore. He raced through the house to the spell room, which was located at the very back. The door leading into it was a stout oak door with steel hinges and a large old-fashioned ring stile handle to open it. There was also a thick steel bolt that had been thrown closed by Misericors when she ran from the deceased goat. The bolt was there specifically for times like this, yet it was sort of useless thanks to the window. They would have to fix that.

"Felix! You in there?" Nuntius called knocking on the door. No answer. He knocked and called one more time, and again received no answer.

"Ok, we're going in. Stand back." Nuntius said, holding out his arm to keep Misericors back.

Nuntius slid the bolt back then slowly pushed the door open. A chemical smell wafted out, carried by a breeze from the broken window. The window had two bars set in a plus sign pattern. These broke the window into four quadrants, all of which were too small for the goat to fit through. However, the goat had somehow broken the lower bar of the plus sign out of the wall, making an opening just big enough for him to fit through and in the process knocking small glass bottles and herbs all over the place.

Misericors favorite wooden chair lay on the ground with a broken leg and a splintered back. Misericors let out a groan when she saw it.

"My chair." She said, bending down and pushing the pieces around. Apparently, the chair meant more to her than all her science materials.

Nuntius stood at the window and gazed out at the open landscape. He leaned out the window and looked at the ground. Clearly impressed into the ground were hoof prints. Nuntius followed them with his eyes until they grew to faint to see. He pulled back into the room.

"I know where he's going." He said

"Where?!"

"Messor's place." Nuntius replied with dread. How did the goat know where Messor lived?

"How do you know?" Misericors asked skeptically.

"Because, that's the way to his house, and the tracks go straight that direction for as far as I can see." Nuntius replied as he walked back to the front door, followed closely by a nervous Misericors. No one liked being around Messor.

The two went around to the back of the house and found the tracks under the window. They followed them for about ten minutes until the came to the crest of a small hill. In the near distance they could see a small stone house without a chimney. Messor didn't like heat, no point in building a chimney if you didn't need a fireplace.

"Yup, straight to Messor's house." Nuntius said groaning.

"You do the talking." Said Misericors. "I don't like talking to him."

"You think I do? But fine, I was planning on it anyway." Nuntius replied sourly.  
They covered the last hundred or so meters to Messor's house in silence, the window slowly picking up and making a moaning sound. Nuntius wondered if what information the goat had would be worth talking to Messor. He hoped so. Nuntius knocked on the plain wooden door set into a windowless stone wall.

A few seconds later the door slowly began to open, its unoiled hinges creaking up a storm. Nuntius and Misericors instinctively took a step back. The door finally finished its inward swing letting out a rush of cold air that sent shivers through their bodies and revealing a dark interior, save for a faint candlelight that was mostly blocked by a shadow.

The shadow slowly stepped forward and revealed itself to be Messor, his dark cloak rustling without making a sound.

"Yes?" he said in a soft, deadly sounding voice that issued forth from under his hood like it was coming from the bottom of a well.

"Um," Nuntius cleared his throat. "I think there is a goat in your house that we are looking for."

Messor didn't reply right away. Instead, he stared, or presumably stared, at Nuntius and Misericors, causing them to fidget nervously. Finally he said:

"Yes, there is a goat here."

"Can we speak to him?"

"Why do you want to speak with him? You traumatized him enough bringing him back and then doing those experiments on him. Why should I let you speak with him?"

"Because, um, it will help us get the gem."  
Nuntius knew Messor did not like the gem. Messor detested its existence because it was something that negated his duties. He didn't like it when the dead were brought back, it messed up the order of things.

"I will let you speak with the goat on one condition." Messor said.

"What is it?" asked Nuntius, though he was pretty sure he already knew what it would be.

"You must give me the gem so that I can destroy it." Messor replied, confirming Nuntius's suspicions.

"What if I keep it in a box where no one can get to it and keep it in my spell room?" asked Misericors.

"No. Give it to me, or I will not let you speak to the goat. And let me keep the goat."

Misericors huffed. She didn't want the gem destroyed, especially after going to all this trouble to get it back. But she knew that that's what should be done. Nuntius didn't really care about the goat much, all he wanted was the information he might know.

"Fine. Nuntius, that good with you?"

"Yes." Said Nuntius.

"Ok then." Messor said in his whispery voice, then stepped out of the doorway to let the two in.

The light let off by the single candle was barely enough for them to see by, but they could see the goat sitting quietly on a stool next to the short table the candle was burning on and looking intently into the flickering flame. He looked pale as flour.

"Why are you here?" he asked, not looking at either of them. His voice sounded like sandpaper.

"We could ask you the same question." Said Nuntius.

He and Misericors walked up to him without bothering to look for something to sit on. They weren't planning on staying long enough to need to sit.

"Because, Death has already tired me. Now that I am in control of myself, I could follow my instincts. They led me to Messor. He knows where I belong, and he has promised my soul rest."

Nuntius didn't know what to say to that, so he just nodded and went on with his next question.

"After Fallax raised you, did you overhear him say what his destination was?"  
The goat, Felix, answered the same way he had the first question, staring into the small flame of the candle and seeming not actually seeing it.

"He said something to the strange looking one about a small town. Sanora I think it was. I remember it was one of the abandoned ring towns."  
"That's what they're called? The ring towns?"  
"Yes."

"The one he mentioned wasn't Coniston was it?" Nuntius asked.

"No. I know it wasn't Coniston. I'm pretty sure it was Sanora. The place where the larger herbivores came from. He said there was a large cemetery nearby, and Sanora has the largest cemetery of the ring towns."

That made sense to Nuntius. If Fallax was trying to do what he thought he was trying to do, then the larger the cemetery, the better.

"Ok Felix, that's all we wanted to know. We'll let you be now."

They turned around and hurried back to the door, eager to get out of the cold dark house.

"Kill him for me, will you?" Felix called after them as they left.

Nuntius stopped and turned around.  
"I can't do that, but I can promise you he will be punished."  
Felix didn't reply. He barely gave any indication he had heard. Nuntius didn't care though, he turned back around and hurried outside, where Misericors already was. He heard Messor close and bolt the door behind them.

"So, you got what you were looking for?" Misericors asked once the bolt was thrown.

"Yes, but I don't know where Sanora is, and since I've never seen it, I'm going to have to get there without using teleportation." He was not looking forward to that until he remembered the tank. He could just ride in that instead of walking. That was much more appealing. Plus, he could get to know the crew a little better.

He checked his watch. Half an hour till the meeting.

"Well Misericors, thank you. I think you just saved a whole world from something very bad."

"But the gem has to be destroyed now." She said, her voice had a hint of anger in it.

"Yes, but that should have been done a long time ago." Nuntius replied.

Misericors huffed, but she didn't say anything. She knew he was right, but she didn't want to admit it.

"I have to go now. I've got to meet some of the local um, law enforcement, about the gem. I've sort of brought them in to help me."  
"Don't get too attached to them Nuntius. It seems like good things never happen when you get attached to the locals."

"I won't." he said. "I'm going to meet them now. You can walk back on your own right?"  
"Yes, I guess so. But I don't want to. Do you have to leave now?"  
"Yes. I want to get there before they do so I can make sure it's safe."

Misericors gave a little sigh. Without warning, she leaned over and gave Nuntius a quick peck on the cheek, completely taking him by surprise. He immediately started blushing.

"I, um. Uh." He stuttered.

"Shh. Now go." Misericors said quietly. "Go save a world."  
Nuntius nodded, still too surprised to say anything. He closed his eye, the rushing came and went, then came and went again, to be replaced with the hustle and bustle of a busy city. He opened his eyes to find himself standing in the same alley as last time.

"Welp, time to go save a world." He said to himself.

 **Ok folks, chapter 11 is finally out. Yes, I know it is a bit short, but I wanted to get something out. Plus, I found a good place to end it, which means I have a good place to pick up in the next chapter.**

 **As always, I would love to hear from my readers. Any ideas or suggestions you might have, or maybe corrections, or maybe just a comment.**

 **I have no schedule for my chapters. I just get them out when I can. I'm not the most prolific of writers, so it takes me a little while to come up with chapter plots, and to get all the little nuances like timing and what not correct. Thank you all for bearing with me, and I hope I continue to put out a story that my readers like.**

 **Signing off,**

 **Erwin.**

 **PS. When i finish this story, which only God knows when that will be, I'll go back and add to these shorter chapters. Sort of flush them out some. Esspecially chapter 1, as that was the first and shortest chapter i wrote.**


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter 12**

Nick yawned and slowly got out of bed. Going to bed after 10:30 wasn't as effect free as it was when he was younger. It made getting up in the morning a lot harder, especially when you had to get up at 6 for work at 7:30. Despite the early hour, he could already smell brewed coffee and hear eggs being cooked. Somehow age didn't seem to affect Judy's ability to wake up early at all.

" _That women never ceases to amaze me."_ He thought to himself.

Nick went to their dresser and pulled out a fresh pair of boxers and a white t-shirt then made his way to the bathroom for his morning shower. Ten minutes later, his routine complete, he walked out of the bedroom to be greeted by his wife, who was in the middle of making his breakfast.

"How's it going sleepy head?" she asked.

Nick walked over to the counter and got his coffee mug of the rack.

"Good," he said, pouring himself a cup of coffee. 

"How's Fin?"

"He's ok I guess." Nick took a chair at the two-person table, leaned back, and crossed his legs. "He's lonely though. Especially after Steve died." He paused and took a sip of his coffee, savoring its acidity. "So I told him we should start hanging out more like we used to. But instead of conning, we could go hiking or something." 

"That's good." Judy said picking up the pan she had been scrambling the eggs in and dumping them on a plate that already had a toasted bagel with grape jelly on it. She then picked it and another plate that had one of her ubiquitous salads on it and brought them over to the table. Her coffee mug was already waiting at her chair.

"So he hasn't found a girlfriend yet I take it?" she asked after sitting down.

"Not really." Nick said, then went on to relate the story about the girl Finnick let get away. "She might come back, but I doubt it." He said at the end.

"Aww, I feel sorry for him sometimes." Judy said. "He always seemed like a wandering soul, but not a willing one." 

"Wow, Judes." Said Nick. "That was deep."  
Judy smiled. "Yeah, I guess it kinda was." She took a sip of the coffee and made a face. "Gah, I don't see how you can drink this stuff black."

"You're drinking it black?!" Nick asked, amazement in his voice.

"Not anymore I'm not." Judy replied getting up and walking to the counter for some artificial creamer. "I just wanted to see if I could drink it like you for once."

Nick laughed. "It'll make your teeth grow slower if you drink it black."  
"Oh shut it slick." Judy said sitting back down. "You're lucky your teeth aren't constantly growing. If they were, you'd probably be dead, seeing how lazy you can be sometimes."

"Har har Carrots." Nick said.

One thing that Nick had learned about rabbits since he had gotten married to Judy was how they kept their teeth at a reasonable length, without having to constantly be gnawing on stuff. Once a month, Judy would take a small tool that was specifically designed for helping mammals like her keep their teeth short, and literally clip her top and bottom teeth. Then she would smooth the rough edges left by the teeth scissors. The whole process took less than ten minutes.

Nick could never watch. Despite Judy telling him many times that it didn't hurt, just thinking about it happening to his teeth made his skin crawl. The first time she did it he walked in on her and thought she was trying to hurt herself. Thankfully, he took the time to ask her what she was doing before he did anything.

"Today we meet with uh, Nuntius, again." Nick said, finishing off the last of his eggs.

"Yeah, he said at the café, right?" Judy asked.

"Yeup. Hey, we need to go check on Leroy, see what he's learned about that metal you found."  
"Oh yeah." Judy said thoughtfully. "I had forgotten about those. But it seems kind of pointless now though."  
"Maybe, but even if it is, it still might give us some useful information." Nick replied.

"Yeah, and we don't want to negate Leroy's work." Judy added.

"Welp, time to finish getting dressed." He said, standing up putting his plate in the dishwasher 

Judy did the same. One hour later, they were sitting in their usual chairs in the bullpen, waiting on Chief Bogo to walk in and give out the morning assignments. The atmosphere in the room was a more charged than usual. Everyone was talking, like normal, but there seemed to be more urgency in their speech, almost like they knew something different was going to happen.

Nick checked his watch. 7:40 it said. The room felt stuffy.

"Buffalo Butt is late." He said to Judy. "He's never late."

"Maybe it's got something to do with why everyone seems to be on anticipating something." She replied.

"You noticed it too?"

"Yeah. I…"  
She got cut off by the sudden appearance of none other than the Chief himself. He was closely followed by another mammal wearing a black three-piece suit, PI style sunglasses, and a look that said he didn't like games. Everyone went silent for a second, then the whispers began.

"Ok everyone listen up!" Bogo bellowed once he had reached the podium. Silence suddenly reigned. "This is Special Agent Enders." He motioned to the smartly dressed antelope beside him. Agent Enders didn't say anything. He just nodded once.

"Now, I want to start off by saying that involving Intercity Investigations was not my idea. Word of the Grey Box incident inevitably got out and agent Enders here showed up in my office this morning. I walked into him sitting at my desk." Bogo was clearly annoyed at this.

"This means that we now have to share everything we learn with him. Hopps, Wilde, I'll need to speak with you in my office after this meeting."

"Yes, Sir." Nick and Judy said at the same time.

"However, that doesn't change the number of people I'm putting on this case. Especially now that there will be special agents involved." Bogo continued, shaking his head. "Alright, enough of me ranting."

Bogo opened the blue paper folder he had placed on the podium and rummaged some papers around then cleared his throat and started giving out the days assignments. Nick and Judy were still on the Grey Box case; however, they now we're going to have to work with Agent Enders. Something they were not looking forward too. 

Unlike last time, Nick did not listen to any of the other assignments that were given out. Instead, he stared at a small spot on the wall right behind Bogo's head. If he looked at it just right, he could barely make out a face.

Bogo looked like he was wrapping up the meeting, so Nick quickly refocused, just in time to hear him say dismissed.

"Hopps, Wilde, follow me." Bogo said as he walked by their seats. Agent Enders followed him like a shadow. The rest of the room was quieter than usual after assignments. Usually, everyone was talking and cracking jokes, but today, it seemed they were all business. Nick knew it was because of the II agent. The feds could turn any group of mammals into all business just by being there. He wondered if II agents ever did anything fun.

Upon reaching Bogo's office, Nick and Judy sat down in the surprisingly comfortable chairs in front of his desk. Enders took off his sunglasses and stood quietly off to the side.

"Hopps, Wilde," Bogo began moving papers out of the way to make a clear spot. "Agent Enders here has been assigned to the Grey Box case, which means that you two will be working closely with him."

"Wait, so does that mean we have to take orders from him now?" Asked Judy.

Bogo sighed. "To an extent. He is in charge of it now. Nothing I can do about it. But that doesn't mean you don't have any autonomy. It just means you have to report back to him regularly. Is that correct Agent Enders?" 

"Correct Chief." Enders said. "I will mostly be a supervisor, so I won't be out in the field too much. At least not over here anyway." 

"Wait, so they just sent you here to monitor?" Bogo asked.

"That is correct. I will not be interfering with your investigation. However, once the grey box has been found, you are to not engage it in any way until we have brought the proper ah, forces, down to deal with it." 

"Are you going to try to capture it?" Nick asked. "Cause that thing could blow you to smithereens if you did."

Enders smiled a smile that didn't reach his eyes at all. It made Nick give a slight shiver. He had never met someone that he couldn't read one iota, yet that is exactly how Agent Enders was, cold and unreadable.

"The grey box is something of great scientific importance and as such, it needs to be brought in for studying. As to its dangerousness, don't worry about that Officer Wilde. We will be more than able to handle it." 

Nick wondered how they could easily handle something that could destroy police cars simply by running over them and blow holes in the road with its massive gun, but he decided not to ask.

"Now, I would like to know how far you have gotten in your investigation." Enders said.

"Not all that far." Said Nick. "We've only been on it for a couple of days."

"So, you've learned nothing then?" Enders asked.

Nick looked at Judy. Something told him not to tell Enders about Nuntius, or the goat, or anything else they had discovered in the short time they had been working on the case. He could see in Judy's eyes that she thought the same thing. Telling Enders about all of that would just make things way more complicated than they already were. The only person who knew the whole story was Bogo, and that's how all three of them wanted it to stay. At least for now. Bogo seemed to share the same feeling because he gave a slight shake of his head when Nick looked at him.

Enders caught his look.

He cleared his throat in and said "Well?".

"We did find one thing." Judy replied after a moment's hesitation. "But I don't know how much it will help."  
"Anything, no matter how small, could be of help." Enders said.

"We, more like I, found some strange pieces of metal yesterday at the spot the box originated from." Judy said.

"What type of metal?" Enders asked.

"We don't know yet. However, we took it to the lab yesterday and Leroy said that it had been in an explosion. He said he could run some tests to figure out more about the metal itself, but he said they wouldn't be done for a couple of days. "

"An explosion you say? Was anything in the alley where the box came from damaged?"

"No." said Nick. "We found the metal behind a dumpster, partially embedded in it and the wall behind it. It looked like someone had hammered it in because there were no other marks anywhere else." 

"Interesting." Enders said stroking his chin. "Have you considered the possibility the box and its crew came from another dimension?"

Nick and Judy gave a start at this. Had he been reading their minds? Enders seemed to notice their astonishment.

"So, you have considered it." He said confidence in his voice. 

They nodded.

"And you Chief?" he said turning. "What do you think?"

"I think its preposterous. However, I can't think of any other way right now, so in the words of Holmes, 'If everything else has been eliminated, whatever is left, no matter how strange, is the truth.' Or something like that."  
"Well put Chief Bogo! Well put!" Enders said clapping his hooves together a couple times.

Nick had to admit, Bogo hit the nail on the head with that statement.

"Now," Enders continued. "I have set up a temporary office here at the station. It's just across the hall from Chief Bogo."

Bogo already knew that, but when he heard it again, it still caused him to get a sour look on his face.

"However, continue to operate as If I am not here." Enders said. "Just know that I will be keeping myself up to date on this case, and If I get a whiff of even a minuscule amount of deception as to the whereabouts of the box, I will stick myself into the middle of this investigation and effectively end you two's roll in it. Understood?"  
To say Nick and Judy did not like Agent Enders' self-imposed importance would be an understatement.

"How would you know if we held something back?" asked Nick testily.

"That's for me to know and you to never find out Officer Wilde." Enders said, walking to the door. "Now if you'll excuse me lady and gentlemammals, I have some work to do." With that Enders opened the door and walked out. The three waited until the heard the opening and closing of his new office door before they said anything.

"Where the heck did he come from?" Nick asked angrily. "I thought the feds only got involved in cases that went between cities."

"Like I said, he just showed up in my office this morning like it was his. I don't know how he got in either." Said Bogo. "I'm tempted to ask the agency myself."  
"Are you?"  
"Probably not. I would just be wasting my time. You know how they are."

Nick nodded. The three sat in silence for a couple of minutes, reflecting back on all that had transpired in the last few days.

"Welp," Nick finally said standing up. "I guess me and Carrots here should get back to work. We got some stuff to do. Right Carrots?"

"Right." Judy said quickly, following Nicks lead and standing up.

"So, what's your first plan of action for the day?" Bogo asked.

"Probably going to check with Leroy. See if he's found anything." Said Nick.

"He might have something." Judy said hopefully.

"Yeah, but even if he does, I don't know how much help it would be." Said Nick. "I mean, so much other stuff has happened since we found the metal."  
"Yeah…" Judy said.

"Well good luck." Bogo said, adjusting his reading glasses on the end of his nose and sitting straighter in his chair. "I'm going to be right here for the next few hours. You know what that means."  
"You got it, sir. We'll call you first if we learn anything." Said Nick. 

Bogo grunted a thank you, then started on the morning's paperwork. 

"Come on carrots," Nick said, holding the door to Bogo's office open for her. "Let's go call on ole Leroy. He should be in the lab already."

The tall lanky being propped his feet up on his desk and leaned back in his chair. His wings were folded up behind him and surprisingly the chair was not making them uncomfortable. The room was sparsely furnished with only a desk, chair, and a single set of shelves, a lamp, and a digital clock on the desk. The carpet was still new looking. A dark blue that didn't yet have any coffee stains, unlike the carpet in the other offices, which showed how much they were used by the worn-out trails left by the passing of feet and by the not-quite-innumerable number of small and large stains left by some tired mammal spilling some of his coffee.

The room had been built for just this occasion, in case an official from another agency or something like that needed an office while he was traveling.

" _Those suckers."_ He thought, _"They'll believe anything."_

Hopefully, they wouldn't go checking on his story. Bogo looked like he was one of those people, or mammals, who would only check on something if it seemed implausible. He was too busy with all that paperwork and having to keep track of what the officers under him were doing to go background checking.

Nick and Judy however, well, he wasn't so sure about them. He hadn't wanted to involve anyone other than the chief, but he had insisted that those two officers meet him since they were working the case. He would have to keep an eye on them. If they started fact-checking him, he would have to do something about it. 

He popped his neck. Man, it felt good to be out of that antelope skin. He never did like changing forms to anything, even humans. It was always uncomfortable and made him feel as if he was trapped in a small room. Now though, he tiredness caught up to him, and he yawned. He had been awake for about 30 hours or so. He had caught a quick nap after they made it to the little town, but that was it.

" _Whew, I should take a nap."_ He thought. _"Fuchs can handle the group for a little while. He's pretty capable. I hope."_

He leaned back a little more in the chair, snugging the top of the padded back into the small of his neck. In no time flat, his eyes were drooping, and sleep washed over him like a blanket. 

The trip to the lab to see what Leroy had found wasn't too fruitful. He had not been able to isolate where the metal had come from, at least not yet. He had, however, been able to determine that the black scorch marks were, as he had speculated, caused by an explosive, but it was an explosive that he had never seen before. He had had to look through some historical databases to determine that it was cordite. An explosive that hadn't been manufactured in a very long time.

They were now sitting in the cruiser, having just enjoyed a nice lunch at a deli. Nick looked at his watch, then looked up at Judy.

"It's nearly two o'clock Judes." He said.

From the driver's seat of their police cruiser Judy answered;  
"I know slick, I have a watch too, see?" she brandished her wrist and flashed the dark blue and black watch at him.

Nick laughed. "Sorry Carrots. I didn't think you actually used it." He laughed some more.

"Then why the heck would I wear it?" she countered.

Nick thought for a second. "Good question."  
"Uh-huh." Judy said. "Let's go on over to the café. Get there a little early and find a spot to sit."

"Ha! Ok."

They were at the café across from the police station inside of 10 minutes. It took Judy nearly that long to find a parking spot. Eventually having to settle with a spot across the street at the station specifically reserved for police cruisers. The café was not quite as crowded as it was the yesterday, but the hustle and bustle of tons of mammals coming and going still made it seem a little claustrophobic. Judy didn't mind, but Nick never was a fan of small spaces.

Just as they were about to order a drink, Nick spotted a familiar face at one of the tables in the back.

"Hey, Carrots." He said, nudging Judy with his elbow. "It's that guy. The one we came here for." Judy looked to where he was pointing, and sure enough, there was the wolf. Seated at a table for two, with a third chair pulled up. 

"I wonder how long he's been here for." Judy said.

Nick's reply was interrupted by the mammal behind the counter.

"Can I get you anything sir?" he said.

"Huh? Oh. Um, not right now. You want anything, Judy?" Nick asked. 

"Blueberry smoothie." She said.

They paid, then went over to where Nuntius was sitting with a cup of coffee.

"How long have you been here?" Nick asked pulling out the chair at the side of the table. Judy took the one at the end.

"Long enough." Nuntius answered. Just then, Judy's name was called, indicating her drink was ready. When Judy got back, Nuntius continued.

"I've got good news and bad news."

"What's the good news first." Replied Nick.

"I've found the tank crew."  
"Great!" said Judy. "Where are they?"

"A small town called Coniston."  
"Really?" said Nick. "I know that place. It's one of those ring towns. The one where us foxes and some others came from. Been abandoned for a while now."

"I didn't know that's where foxes were living before Zootopia!" said Judy.

"Were you not paying attention in school Carrots?" Nick asked teasingly.

Judy blushed. "I guess not."

Nick chuckled.

"Yeah, well, they're creepy as hell too." Said Nuntius, bringing the top back on track.

"Figures." Said Nick leaning back in his chair.

"Yup. I found them hiding in a warehouse of some sort. Somethings wrong with them though. They smell like death."

Judy grimaced. "Death?" she asked.

"Like meat. Rotting meat. They're dead you know. That's how they got here."

Nick and Judy shuddered. They still didn't really understand all that was going on.

"So, what is the bad news?" Nick asked.

Nuntius cleared his throat and looked into his empty coffee cup. "You won't be getting the goat back." He said.

It was quiet for a few moments, then Judy said;

"What do you mean we won't be getting the Felix back?" she made a point of using the goat's name.

"Messor wants him." Nuntius mumbled, still looking into his cup. 

Nick leaned forward. "What?" he said, cocking his ear.

Nuntius looked up. "I said, Messor wants him."  
"Who is Messor?" Nick and Judy asked at the same time.

"Keeper of the dead."

"Seriously? Keeper of the dead?" said Nick.

"Yes, and letting him keep the goat was the only way I was going to be able to talk to him and learn the whereabouts of the gem. And when Messor wants something in exchange for something else, you have to exchange it or not get what you want."

Nuntius's confidence grew while he spoke. There was no reason to be nervous telling these two they wouldn't be able to bring the goat back when he had such a good reason.

"So, what are we going to tell his mom?" Asked Judy, annoyance in her voice. Nuntius could tell she wanted to say more but was doing a masterful job at controlling herself. Nick, on the other hand, had an expression of perfect indifference on his face. So perfect, that Nuntius could not tell what he was thinking whatsoever.

"I don't know." He said.

"Just wait for her to call him in missing." Nick said calmly. "We might just have to not tell her we ever found him in the first place."  
"WHAT?" Judy said loudly, causing mammals at other tables to look their way with annoyance and curiosity. 

"Quite Judy." Said Nick, putting his paw on her arm.

"What do you mean we might not tell her we found him?" Judy said more quietly, but no less forceful than last time. She looked at Nick with an expression that had changed from surprise to anger. "We have too, it's the right thing to do!"

The only thing that showed that Nick was starting to lose his cool was a gleam in his eyes that wasn't there a few seconds ago. It seemed to Nuntius that he had on a mask.

" _He would make a good poker player."_ He thought.

"Well, we might not be able to Judy. How would we be able to explain all this to her?" Nick made a gesture with his arms like he was showing the size of a fish he had caught. Judy couldn't reply to this, and for a second, they seemed to have forgotten about Nuntius. Then Judy surprised him by directing her next question to him.

"So, what are we going to do about his mom?" she asked, anger still in her voice. However, there was also a hint of resignation in it too. She knew Nick was right.

"Hell if I know." Nuntius said shrugging. "I think your husband has the right idea though."

This was clearly what Judy had been expecting to hear, for now, her look of anger changed to that of resignation. 

"There is no way we are going to tell Mrs. Cheval about all this." Nick said to her, finally leaning back in his chair. "The only thing the public will know is about the box. Speaking of which," He directed this part to Nuntius. "Did you learn where the gem is?" 

"Yes, I was just about to get to that." Said Nuntius. "Felix said it was in one of the ring towns. Sanora, he said. Ring a bell?"  
"Sure does. It's the town right down from Coniston. Something like 35 or so kilometers from it."  
"Know how to get there?"

"Yup." Nick said. "I can get us there from here or from Coniston."  
"Wonderful!" said Nuntius. "I was wanting to bring the crew and their vehicle with us. We'll probably need them."

"The only problem is there is an old bridge between Coniston and Sanora. I'm not sure if it can hold the weight of that thing." Said Nick. 

"I can deal with that." Nuntius said. Then he stood up. "You ready to go?"  
"Now?" Asked Judy.

"Yeah. The sooner the better."  
"I think we should tell the chief where we are going." Said Nick standing up. Judy followed his lead.

"If you must." Said Nuntius. "But don't take too long though. The faster this is resolved the better."  
"We won't take long." Nick replied. "Come on Carrots. Let's go inform ole Buffalo Butt what's up."

"And try not to let anyone else learn about it ok?" said Nuntius just before they walked out the door.

"We will." Called Nick.

Fallax woke with a start to the faint sound of a door closing. At first, confusion reigned as he tried to figure out where he was. Then he remembered he had fallen asleep in an office in the ZPD station. The clock on the desk said it was 2:45. He had been asleep for nearly eight hours. 

He stood and walked over to the office door and leaned his ear against it, listening for any sounds that might indicate someone was outside. Hearing none, he gingerly opened it and peeked his head. Nothing. He ducked back inside and quickly transformed himself back into the antelope that was Agent Enders. The small room feeling washed over him, causing him to shutter.

He took a few seconds to compose himself and put on his sunglasses before exiting his office and walking over to Chief Bogo's door. He was pretty sure that it was the closing of this door that had woken him up. Sure enough, when he put his ear against it, he was just in time to hear someone say

"…out in the ring towns, Coniston and uh, Sanora." Said the voice of the fox police officer.

"Are you sure?" came the deep, gruff voice of Chief Bogo.

"Yup. Me, Judy, and Nuntius were going to go out there after we finished telling you."  
"And you're sure you don't want any backup?" 

"Yes." Replied Nick. "The fewer people who know about this, the better."

"Pretty much everyone knows about it already." Said the chief. "I mean, they did make a big scene by blowing a hole in the street and run over a couple of police cars."  
It was quiet on the other side of the door for a few seconds. Evidently, Bogo had hit a nerve.

"What we should really do right now is call a press conference. Let folks know the developments." He continued. "I've been good about keeping the press at bay, but believe it or not, they have been pestering me pretty much every day since the incident. You by chance haven't noticed the occasional shady character standing around outside the station, have you?"

"Well, uh, now that you mention it, I have." He heard Nick say. Judy concurred.

"Specifically, Winston." Said Bogo, speaking about the always dapper pangolin who worked for the slightly shady _Zootopia Action News_ that operated on channel 7 and brought out updates faster than they were officially released. Many a time had there been a news bulletin out about something before official word had gotten out thanks to him. "That sneak has been very annoying lately. Thankfully, only me and you two actually know anything." 

"So, does that mean we should wait to go with Nuntius till after the conference?" asked the rabbit.

"How about this," Bogo said after a pause. "I will wait till tomorrow morning to call the conference. That should give you enough time to get out there and see if you can deal with that other creature and the gem first. After the conference though, well, I have a feeling the other two cities will send up SWAT teams to help us deal with them. Once that happens, the ball will be rolling too fast for me to stop."

" _I'm going to leak it early anyway."_ Fallax thought from his hiding place. A plan was beginning to form in his head. A plan that would hopefully cause the citizens of this place to bow to him without much of a fight.

He didn't wait around to hear more. He needed to go find Winston and tell him the news, then hurry back to Fuchs and prepare him for the coming fight. That tank was going to be hard to knock out.

Fallax hurried walked down the hallway calmly as if he was just going out for lunch. Even so, officers and other mammals of the police force who saw him gave him a wary glance when he passed them, and a few civilians who were in the lobby stared at him. To them, he looked like he had come straight from a movie. 

Once outside he went straight across the street to a small café that was bustling with afternoon activity. He was confident Winston would be in one of the small cafés or bars that were near the police station.

Inside, the café was crowded, but not so crowded that he couldn't see all who were inside clearly enough. It was plain to see that the pangolin wasn't there, but someone else caught his eye instead. Towards the back of the establishment sat a lone grey wolf dressed in a suit and hat and drinking from a paper coffee cup. Something about him rang an alarm bell deep in Fallax's mind, but he couldn't quite place why. Before he was spotted, Fallax turned away and went back outside.

It took him 20 minutes to find Winston. He wasn't in a bar or café like he had expected but instead was in a small book store just down the block. When he walked in the pangolin had tried to leave, but he confronted him before he could do so. 

"What do you want?" Winston asked. "I know who you are, you're from Intercity Investigations. I would have seen you coming a long way away if I hadn't had my nose in a book." He said testily.

"I have something for you." Fallax said.

"For me? Something _for_ me?" Winston said skeptically.

"Yes. Some news about the Grey Box affair."  
At this, the pangolin dropped all pretense of being scared or annoyed and reached into his pants pocket to pull out a pen and pad and readjusted his glasses. "Ok," he said. "You have me."

"I know where the box is. I also know the ZPD is going to hold a press conference tomorrow morning saying such."  
"Ok, so where is it?"  
"I'll tell you, but you have to do something for me as well."  
The pangolin looked at him suspiciously. "What?" he asked, taping his pen on his pad of paper.

"I want it in the news before tonight."  
"You…"  
"AND," Fallax continued, "I want you to have a chopper with a camera recording live at the location at a specific time. Can you do that?"  
Winston was quiet now; his outburst having died on his lips.

"Ummm…"  
"If you can't, that's fine. But you don't get the info." Fallax said.

"I can get it, I can get it." The pangolin said quickly. The request was a strange one, but not un-doable, and he knew better though than to ask questions. Those could you in trouble.

"If you don't," Fallax said. "There will be consequences."  
Winston nodded. "I'll get it, man, now what do you know?" 

**OK folks, I finally got chapter 12 out. I'm sorry it took so long, but goodness, I have very been busy. I will reiterate that I do not have a scheduled publishing time, nor will I ever.**

 **While writing this, I realized I had barely done anything with the media, but to be honest, I'm not really sure how I would include it, but I finally thought of something towards the end of this chapter.**

 **I'm probably going to wrap this story up in the next couple of chapters. Then I will go back and flush out some earlier chapters.  
**

**As always, I would like to hear from my readers, and I would also like to thank you for reading this far.**

 **Signing off,**

 **Erwin.**


	13. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

Fuchs sat on an overturned grave marker, let out a sigh, and took a puff from a cigarette Fallax had somehow procured for him earlier. The undead cat stood next to him, silently keeping watch over a couple hundred other undead animals. The field was dotted with the freshly upturned earth that used to be these creatures' graves. All these undead were large herbivores, ranging from regular old cows to bigger than normal water buffalo and other types that he had never seen before.

Fuchs was tired. Being dead had its perks in that he never seemed to get hungry, but his muscles always ached. A dull, throbbing ache. He noticed it within minutes of waking up in the tunnel. He had been able to forget about it, with all the excitement lately, but now, after the hard manual labor of digging up graves, his arms and legs felt like they were made of rubber bands. He needed a break.

He watched the undead creatures shuffled around on two feet like so much mindless waste, rags of what used to be clothes hanging off them and listened to the snuffling and thumping that came from all over the field. The shuffling made them look dumb like they had been out in the sun too long and had gotten heat stroke. Yet, underneath that shuffling, Fuchs could sense intelligence. The way they looked at him every so often, almost resentful for being awakened from their eternal sleep, spoke of intelligence. Fuchs wasn't worried though. They couldn't do anything without him or Fallax letting them.

However, the smell was something fierce. It was a mix of old decay and damp earth that issued forth from the graves in something akin to the shimmering heat waves one sees when looking down an asphalt road on a hot day.

Fuchs had begun this escapade of raising the dead some eight or so hours ago after Fallax had left him with instructions to raise an army from the cemetery. It took him and the undead cat nearly an hour to dig down enough to the first grave's inhabitant so that he could shoot the gem's light beam into it. However, with the help of the surprisingly strong undead wildebeest from this grave, and the subsequent help from the rest of the creatures he raised, it didn't take long before he had a large number of undead soldiers. It was now past 3 o'clock, and he was expecting Fallax back any minute.

Then he heard it. A soft crack from behind him that announced the arrival of Fallax.

"What took you so long?" Fuchs asked without turning around. The cat didn't seem to notice Fallax at all.

"I took a nap." Fallax replied, walking through the long grass to Fuchs and stopping beside him.

"Good job on the army here." He said, waving his hand in an arc. Fuchs grunted a thanks and watched Fallax sit down next to him on another stone. Fallax cleared his throat and said; "We're going to have company soon."  
"Oh?"

"Yes."

"Is that all you're going to tell me?" Fuchs asked, looking over at Fallax, whose gaze was wondering around the overgrown cemetery and the shuffling creatures that filled it.

"Some police from here, as well as someone from my world." Fallax said without looking at him.

Fuchs worked the cigarette back and forth in his mouth, he was pretty sure Fallax wasn't telling him the whole story, but he decided not to push the subject.

"So, what do you want me to do?" he asked.

"They will be coming from the south, another abandoned town like this one. If they come the way I think they will, they will have to come across a bridge. I want you to fortify that area, and make sure the bridge is weak. DO NOT destroy it though." Fallax put heavy emphasis on the 'do not' part.

"Why can't I destroy it?" Fuchs asked. Destroying bridges was the first thing one would do in making a defensive line. The Belgians had tried to do it before the German army was able to get across the Meuse river, but thanks to some special forces, the Germans had thwarted their plans on all but one of those bridges. Bridges where key.

"Let's just say we might need it for something. A trap of sorts."

"Huh." Fuchs grunted. He went back to smoking his cigarette and watching the undead animals. _"Mammals, I mean."_ He thought. He didn't like the idea of not destroying the bridge, but it wasn't his decision to make. It felt weird taking orders from some random person.

 _"_ _Actually,"_ Fuchs thought, " _He's more of an alien."_ Either way, it still felt weird.

"How do they know we are here?" he asked.

"Not sure, but it doesn't really matter though does it, Fuchs?"

"I guess not." Fuchs said nodding. He took a last long puff of the cigarette then crushed it out on the stone he was sitting on. "So where is this bridge exactly?"

"Down the road that way." Fallax pointed towards the wood line in a roughly southerly direction.

The cemetery was outside the ruins of the town, and the only road that led to it was a pitted and broken one-lane asphalt road that ran beneath a tunnel of old growth oaks whose foliage only let light through in splotches. A stark difference to the wide open and well-lit but overgrown cemetery. Of course, this was not the road Fallax was pointing at. In the town, there was a large main street that ran off into the gloom of the forest in both directions, presumably to other towns. This was the road that Fallax was saying ran over the bridge that they were going to make an ambush at.

"What are you going to do now?" Fuchs asked.

"Not sure." Fallax replied. They were quiet for a moment.

"How's the cat been?" he asked, looking over his shoulder at the cat, who was standing silently behind Fuchs.

"Good." Said Fuchs. "He helped with the first grave. Speaking of the cat, whatever happened to that goat?"

A puzzled look came over Fallax's face as he tried to recall the goat. Quickly though, he remembered what Fuchs was talking about.

"Oh, the goat! Um, I think we left it at the prison." His voice trailed off as he recalled something else.

"Hey!" he said suddenly. "I wonder if the goat was responsible for Nuntius and those cops finding out where we are." He grinned. "Well, it doesn't matter now. We get to fight them on our own ground because of it!"

Fuchs wasn't so sure that that mattered, especially considering how fast the Germans had conquered France on their own ground. But the French weren't really prepared, and they would be, so maybe...

"Well Herr Fallax," Fuchs said confidently, "I'll prepare something that will, as the Americans say, 'Give them a good licking.'"

"Whatever it is you have planned Fuchs, I need it ready by 8 o'clock tomorrow morning. Alright?"

"8 o'clock!" Fuchs said, checking his watch. It was nearly 4. "We'll have to work through the night! I do get tired, you know."

"It shouldn't take you that long Fuchs. Not with all this help." Fallax said, jerking his head to the side, indicating all the zombie mammals.

"Ah yes, how could I forget about them. We'll have it done on time. Now that I think about it, it couldn't be that hard to make a good position."

"Good, because I'm counting on it."

* * *

Nuntius paused to catch his breath at the top of the old concrete bridge that strangely enough was in a bit of a clearing. It had taken him quite a while to walk from Coniston to this spot, about halfway between the two towns. Having to have seen the spot you want to go to before you could teleport to it was getting annoying. He had done more walking these past few days then he had done in the last few years, and it showed.

" _Gah-lee."_ He thought, bending down and rubbing his calves. _"I have got to exercise more."_

He would have used his wings, but the tunnel of trees that had closed over the road had made that difficult, so he had given it up after only a short distance of banging them on low hanging branches and tree trunks.

The bridge was clearly very old. Parts of it were weeping water, and small trees and other shrubs were growing from the deck, slowly splitting it apart. Nuntius climbed down into the river bed that the bridge crossed to inspect the pillars.

 _"_ _Hmmm,"_ he thought. " _These aren't too bad."_

Still, they needed some touching up. Along with the rest of the bridge. There was something cathartic about fixing large cracks and clearing small piles of debris using magic. So cathartic in fact, that Nuntius did not notice the sound of creatures stomping through the brush until they were almost on top of him. Thankfully, one of the creatures made an especially loud noise by stepping on something that gave a crack, breaking Nuntius out of his reverie just as he was filling an especially large crack on the bridge's deck.

Quick as a whistle he ran back to the side of the bridge he came from and laid down in a small ditch surrounded by bushes. He looked up just in time to see what looked like some sort of oxen emerge from the woods at the side of the river. He was quickly joined by more mammals, not all of which were oxen, but all of which looked like they had been dead and buried for a long time.

" _Fallax."_ He thought. This was the army that Fallax had been working on.

Nuntius continued to lay perfectly still, barely daring to breathe. He watched as the mammal who had first appeared sniffed the air and look around. His dull black eyes scanning the surrounding forest. Evidently, he became satisfied that no one was around and gave a grunt. A few seconds later another creature, a humanoid dressed in a sharp looking uniform, stepped out of the woods, directly on to the road in front of the bridge. At first, Nuntius though this was Fallax, upon further inspection, he could tell that it was someone else.

Flanking him were more creatures, and Nuntius could hear still more in the woods. The human slowly walked out onto the bridge. He stood there quietly for a couple of minutes before saying "Someone has been here."

None of the other creatures seemed to have heard, but those four words sent shivers down Nuntius's spine. How could he tell?

"Search the area!" the human cried. "Find whoever it was that was fixing this bridge! They're still here, I can feel it."

Nuntius groaned inwardly. This was stupid. How could he have been so careless? He should have been paying more attention as he worked on the bridge.

Something didn't fit though. How did Fallax know to send his army here? Nuntius didn't have an answer, neither did he have time to try to come up with one, for there were now too many undead mammals in around him that it was only a matter of minutes before he was found.

One mammal was particularly close, so close that Nuntius could smell him without even trying.

 _"_ _Time to use my wings!"_ he thought.

Nuntius stood up quickly and in seconds pushed his way through the bushes to a spot clear enough for him to spread his six-foot wings without hitting anything. Just as he was lifting off there was a crushing blow on his butt that sent him flying into a nearby tree. He landed on one of his wings and heard a sickening crunching noise. Pain flooded all his senses and he blacked out.

* * *

Henry Barton lifted the nose of the Bell 206 off the helipad on the roof of the Zootopia Action News agency's studios and pointed it in a north-easterly direction. It was early evening, and the sun was low in the sky, it hadn't started setting yet, but it was close. Not that it mattered. Barton prided himself on his ability to fly in the dark. He had been flying choppers for nearly 30 years now. Though he had to admit, this was an odd time to fly. As far as he knew, there was nothing major going on that would have required a chopper in the air, but Winston had been very insistent, and when Winston said there was something worth using the chopper for, then that meant there must be something worth using the chopper for.

Winston had given him a strangely specific set of coordinates to fly towards. Winston had also requested the 6:15 time slot to so he could go live. It was 5:30 now.

"How long till we get there?" Winston asked over the radio.

"About 15 minutes." Replied Barton.

Winston nodded but didn't say anything.

The 15 minutes went by in silence.

"We're coming up on those coordinates Winston!" said Barton. "You see anything?"

Winston stared out the window at the woods below him. At first, he couldn't see anything. The combination of sun's failing light and the dark foliage made it hard to make out anything other than trees, but then he noticed a steeple sticking up through the trees.

"Go a little that way!" he pointed toward the steeple. "And turn on the searchlight."

Barton complied, pointing the chopper in the right direction and flipping a switch on the control panel that turned on a massive spotlight mounted in the nose of the chopper, next to the TV camera.

"Anything?" Barton asked.

"Just the steep… Wait a second, point the light a little that way."

Barton did so and heard a sharp intake of breath from Winston. At first, he couldn't tell what he had seen, but then he saw it, and his blood ran cold.

"Oh my gosh." he said quietly.

A short distance behind the steeple was a large field full of tall but now trampled brown grass and surrounded by a dark forest. Dotting the field like a plague of locusts were dozens upon dozens, probably hundreds, of freshly dug holes, each with a dull grey stone at their heads. The grass around most of the graves had been trampled, but there was still enough left standing that trails leading to the woods could still be seen. Barton followed them with the light until they reached the wood line.

The wood line looked as if someone had poked holes in it. Where ever the trails in the grass met the woods, there was an area that had been cleared, presumably to let whatever had made the trails through.

"Henry," he heard Winston say, "Let's get that camera rolling now."

* * *

Judy parked the cruiser under a large oak tree right at the entrance to the town. Unlike Zootopia that one could tell they were entering long before they actually entered it by the slow thickening of buildings, Coniston just abruptly started. If it wasn't for the road, of which there wasn't much left, one would have no idea they were coming up to a town until they popped out from the forest and into the shady, overgrown main street. Decrepit buildings lined the old blacktop, punctuated three times by roads that oddly enough were only on one side. It was like the settlers had decided to ignore one side when the spread out.

Down the middle of main street there were trees that had clearly been planted there as part of a garden, but they had long since become gnarled and overgrown.

The fronts of the wooden buildings were rotting, slowly falling apart and shedding detritus in the road. The brick buildings were fairing better, but not by much. The whole area was cast in shadow, leaving one with a feeling of loneliness.

"Man, this place is spooky." Said Judy.

Nick murmured his agreement.

"Nuntius said that they were in a large warehouse." Nick said.

"But where?"

"Just look at the ground. I think those are its tracks." Nick said gesturing at the ground where caterpillar type tracks made dark furrows. "They lead to that middle street there." He pointed to a street whose entrance was just barely visible between a store that had a sign that said "Filimont's Shoes" and another that might have been a bar.

"Well let's go say hi then!" said Judy excitedly. She began walking towards the alleyway at a fast pace.

Before Nick could say anything, Judy had started off at a fast clip towards the road. Nick groaned but kept up with her.

"What are we going to say?" he asked.

"I don't know." Said Judy. "Let's just introduce ourselves and see how it goes from there. I think we'll be fine" she assured him.

Nick shook his head, but he had come to trust his very gregarious wife on these matters.

"How was I ever lucky enough to find you Carrots?" he asked as they walked. "You're so much different than I am. Or was. Sorta."

"Well slick," she said. "I found you just as much as you found me."

"Yeah, I guess your right." Nick said quietly.

"You alright Nick?" Judy asked, pulling on his arm to get him to stop, only a few feet from the road.

"Yeah. I just suddenly started wondering what I would do if something were to happen to you."

"Golly Nick. If something were to happen to me, I can almost guarantee it would happen to you too, so we'll be together even if we die."

"Man Carrots, you've been more philosophical in the last two days then you have been since we met. But I must admit, that does cheer me up. At least, as much as something like that can."

"We can talk about our emotions later my love." She said. "Let's go talk with these humans first though."

"Alright Carrots." Nick said, still a little nervous.

 _"_ _Sheesh Nick,"_ he thought. _"Marriage has made you soft."_

He chuckled

"What?" Judy asked.

"Nothing Carrots. Just thinkin."

Nick and Judy stopped at the corner of the building across from Filimont's. Nick peeked his head around to see if the coast was clear but quickly pulled it back again.

"They're standing around in the street Judes." He said quietly.

"Did they see you?"

As if they had heard her ask the question, a voice from the around the corner called out;

"Who's there?" followed by footsteps from two of the humans.

Nick quickly stepped out from hiding ran to the middle of the road and flung his hands in the air. Judy followed suit. In front of them, partly hidden by shadows, were two badly burnt creatures dressed in strange uniforms and holding pistols of some kind. Nick hoped they were dart guns, but something told him they weren't. Behind the creatures, humans he was pretty sure, was a large white building with a massive barn door that had been pulled back to reveal a very dark interior from which protruded the unmistakable grey box around which lingered three more burned humans.

"Don't shoot! It's just us!" he said. "Uh, I mean Nick and Judy. From the police department."

"Nuntius sent us!" said Judy.

"Nuntius?" the one in front asked.

"Yes. He said we were going to help you get back some sort of gem." Nick said.

Just then, a small gust of wind sprang up, causing leaves to swirl around in little eddies along the street, and sending a whiff of foul air right into their faces. Nick nearly gagged. Judy just winced.

"I see you've become acquainted with our smell." Said one of the humans as he jumped off the box and started walking toward them. "Rimsky, Dittmer, you can lower your weapons now."

The two who had challenged them put their pistols back into their holsters.

"Um, yes. Yes, I guess we have." Nick stuttered. "Can I put my paws down now?"

The one who had seemed to be the leader, the one who had jumped off the vehicle and was now walking toward them laughed.

"Yes, you can put them down now. By the way, my name is Franz Oster, you can call me Franz." This is Heinz Ulex, my driver." Ulex nodded. Oster then motioned to the other burned figure who had walked up beside him. "And this is Joachim Vaerst my radio operator and front MG operator." Vaerst waved at them. Judy waved back.

"Otto Rimsky, my gunner, is the one who you first spoke too and Karl Dittmer, the loader, is the quiet one."  
Rimsky and Dittmer both said hello, then fell silent.

"Well, um, I'm Nick." Nick said awkwardly.

"I'm Judy!" said Judy, not quite as enthusiastically as normal, but more enthusiastic than Nick.

"I never thought I would find myself talking to a rabbit." Said Oster. "Or a fox for that matter."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Nick asked, anger creeping into his voice.

"Exactly what it sounded like." Replied Oster. "Your kind, and rabbits, and any other animal for that matter do not speak and wear clothes where we are from."

"Seriously? They're naked?" Judy asked surprised.

Oster thought for a second. "I guess you could say that. Although, we don't really view them as such."

Judy blushed at this. Just the thought that these creatures, these humans, were used to seeing mammals naked was weird as heck. That meant that they knew what she and Nick looked like under their clothes. Her face got hotter the more she thought about it. Thankfully, Nick came to the rescue.

"So, um, what do you eat?" Nick asked, changing the subject much to everyone's obvious relief.

"Why don't we sit down near the vehicle and talk." Oster said, ignoring the question. "Ulex, go turn the headlamps on please.""Yes, sir." Ulex said.

Nick and Judy watched as the burnt human climbed up onto the grey box with surprising dexterity before disappearing down a hatch in the round thing on top of the box. A few seconds later two lights on the front of the vehicle flashed on. Nick noticed the strange slitted piece of metal that covered the bulbs.

Oster took a seat on the front of the vehicle. The other followed suit, finding places on the gun, turret, and elsewhere.

"So Nuntius sent you two?" he asked.

"Yes." replied Nick. "He said something about a gem that he needed to get back and that we were going to help."

"That is correct."

"Speaking of Nuntius, where is he?" Judy asked. "He was supposed to be here I thought."  
"He went to go check on the bridge, remember?" said Nick.

"Oh yeah, now I do. But that was like an hour or two ago. Shouldn't he be back by now?"

"I wouldn't worry about him." Rimsky said. "He seems to be able to take care of himself."

"We'll give him till it gets fully dark before we start worrying." Said Oster.

"So not much longer than."

"Nope."

An awkward silence followed. Finally, Judy could stand it no longer.

"So, um, why don't we do some icebreakers while we wait?" she said. "I'll go first."

* * *

Nuntius awoke to a fiery feeling coming from his right wing. He tried to move it, but all that did was make it hurt worse. He flinched.

"Ah, I see that you are awake." A deeply accented voice said. "I was beginning to wonder if you had been hit too hard."

"Where am I?" Nuntius managed to groan. Where ever he was though, it was dark. The ground felt like dirt, and he proved himself correct when he grabbed a handful of it.

"Fallax?" he guessed.

"I'm here." Another voice, clearly Fallax's, answered.

"Where am I?" Nuntius repeated less groggily this time.

"You're at our headquarters, so to speak." The accented voice said. "I am Fuchs, by the way. Heinrich Fuchs. But you will call me Führer."

"Oh." Was all Nuntius could think to say. He tried sitting up, gritting his way through the pain until he had his back fully up against a tree. He was exhausted, but he didn't really know why. Around him, Nuntius could hear shuffling and grunts. Sometimes, there would be a flurry of shuffles and grunts, followed by complete and utter silence that sent shivers up his spine.

Somewhere overhead Nuntius could hear a deep _thump-thump-thumping_ sound. If he squinted, Nuntius could barely make out a light going in circles around their position.

 _"_ _Must be a helicopter."_ He thought.

"You must be the one Fallax got for help." Nuntius said after a minute or two of catching his breath.

Fuchs didn't answer. Instead, Fallax replied;

"You shouldn't have come to this world Nuntius. Why couldn't you and those other stuck ups just let me have it?" Fallax asked.

"Because," Nuntius said, "You are too unscrupulous. We cannot trust that you will not somehow lead this world into death and depravity. We can't risk it."

"Have I really fallen that low in their eyes?" Fallax asked, fake sadness in his voice.

"You've pretty much always been like that to them. To us. To me"

"Tsk tsk Nuntius. I always thought that maybe I could fix that! But, I guess I will have to prove you right this night. Fuchs, let's put this plan into action!"

"With pleasure." Said Fuchs.

 **Ok, folks, I know it's been a while, but here is chapter 12. I'm sorry for it being rather short, but I was having extreme writer's block for a while, as well as being quite busy. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and if you have any ideas or comments I would love to hear them.**

 **Signing off,**

 **Erwin**


	14. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

Bright white lights appeared all throughout the woods like giant unblinking fireflies. They were accompanied by the grunts of those huge mammals he had seen earlier, and the snaps and cracks of branches as the moved around.

"Those lights are for the news helicopter Nuntius." Said Fallax, as if he had been reading his thoughts. "I want as many people to see this as possible."

Nuntius didn't reply. Instead, he listened for the thump of the helicopter's rotors. He could hear it just beyond the canopy of trees overhead, but he couldn't find it's light. Maybe it had been turned it off.

The plan, as it had been piecemeal explained to him, was to station a large number of the undead on the opposite side of the bridge hidden in the dense brush and uneven terrain on either side of the road. Very simple but he couldn't see how they would prevail against that awful machine he had seen.

Once the enemy had reached the bridge, Fuchs was going to try and talk them into surrendering with the offer that they would be placed high in the ranks of his and Fallax's army in return. If they did not accept, which Fuchs and Fallax figured would be the case, then the mammals they had stationed across the bridge would spring from their hiding places and commence to overwhelm them with numbers and brute strength and try to capture the tank with as little damage as possible as well as take its occupants alive.

Nuntius had watched as they had moved massive tree trunks into better positions for hiding, as well as setting up a roadblock on this side of the bridge just in case things went south. It was amazing how strong they were. They tried rigging the bridge to fall, but Nuntius's repairs were uneversable, and Fuchs had gotten quite mad when he learned that the bridge was going to be stable throughout the whole operation.

"Why didn't you plan it for daylight?" he asked after a while.

"Events didn't let things go to plan." Was the simple reply. Then he was asked a question.

"Why did you try to fly away? Why didn't you teleport?"

Nuntius thought for a second. "You know," he said. "I'm not really sure. I think I just wanted to see who was there while staying out of reach. I guess it didn't work out too well."

"It most assuredly did not." Then they went back to watching and listening to the darkness.

Since his little 'interview' as he had come to call it, Nuntius had been moved closer to where the battle would happen. Now, he was tied to a tree just off to the right of the bridge, which was no more than ten meters away.

"Relax Nuntius." Fuchs's accented voice said from the dark. "It won't be much longer. When your friends show up we will give them an option to surrender peacefully. If they're smart, they'll agree. Otherwise, it won't take long to neutralize them"

"Here they come." Fallax said quietly.

Fuchs made a gesture that was somehow seen by the creatures in the woods and immediately all the lights went out and everything went completely silent. All that is except for quite a few lights that now came on high up in the trees. A few tense minutes why by, and Nuntius was beginning to think the Fallax had been mistaken, but then he heard it. The sound of an engine and clanking metal. The clinking reminded him of chains trying to hold back some monster. Closer and closer it came until through the foliage he could make out two lights dancing up and down over the uneven ground.

"Get ready!" he heard the one called Fuchs say. Then he saw him walk out into the open space in front of the bridge with a large torch.

Beside him stood a cat of some sort. Nuntius had noticed him earlier but hadn't thought much of it. Now it seemed that this cat might be a batman of sorts, always hanging nearby ready to do Fuchs's bidding.

Within minutes the machine that was making all the noise hove into view across the bridge, it's light cutting swathes through the dark clearly illuminating Fuchs.

"Who are you?" a voice in accented English rang out from the machine.

"Ah, a fellow countryman!" Fuchs called back when he recognized the accent and the vehicle, then he switched to German. "I'm here to give you a special offer!"

There was silence for a few seconds, then the voice from the tank replied in German "We're listening."

"We would like to offer you and your crew the position of third in command of the Army of the Undead and help us to conquer this world. You will receive large sections of land and other rewards upon successful completion of that goal."

Not a bad speech Fuchs thought. He wished though that they could have come up with a better name for the army but neither Fuchs nor Fallax were that creative.

"We'll discuss it." Said the voice from the tank.

A few minutes of quiet went by. Fuchs acted nonchalant, but Nuntius could tell he was impatient and ready to move things along.

Finally, a different voice that Nuntius recognized as one of the officer's he had been working with came back and said; "No-can-do Buckaroo!"

For a second Fuchs was visibly startled at the change in the voice coming from the tank, but before he could say anything a deafening boom exploded from the tank's gun and the torso and head of the cat standing next to him disappeared in a mist of red that lingered in the air like a fog. The shell flew further into the woods and exploded farther behind in an explosion that looked weirdly pretty. Like an orange flower that bloomed for only a few seconds before being whipped away by a high wind.

Nuntius winced as the shock wave from the gun's muzzle hit him and Fuchs dove for cover and forgot all pretenses of formality. He let out a string of curses as he looked up from his hiding place in a ditch. Little streaks of light that he recognized as tracers from one of the machine guns zipped overhead. A few seconds later another boom issued from the tank.

The fight was on.

* * *

"Where is he?" Oster asked, impatience tinting his deep throaty voice. It was dark already and Nuntius was supposed to have been back by now.

"I don't know." Said Nick. "He didn't give you a time when he'd be back?"  
"No. He did say something about a bridge though." Said Ulex. "Said he needed to strengthen it I think."

"Yeah, I'm the one who told him about it." Nick replied.

"Maybe he fell and got hurt or something." Judy said. "Why don't we go see if we can find him."

Nick laughed. "I doubt he fell and got hurt Carrots."  
"Seriously though!" Judy exclaimed. "I think we should go check on him."

"We can take the tank." Oster cut in.

"Umm… would we ride inside with you guys?"

"Unless you want to ride on top outside, which would probably not be very safe if something was going on at the bridge." Said Dittmer. "That, and if we fired the gun your ears might burst." he added with a grin.

"Ick." Said Nick.

"Ick? Why do you say 'ick'?" asked Dittmer.

"Uh…" Nick had to think fast. He didn't want to risk insulting these powerful humans and causing them to turn of relations with them. Or worse, turn hostile all because he thought the idea of riding in that small box with them as rather disgusting. "Nothing, nothing. I was just thinking about our eardrums bursting."

Judy gave him a look that said she knew he was lying. Nick pretended not to see it.

Dittmer believed him though and laughed before saying "Just think about how gross things would be if you got shot with it. There'd be body parts everywhere."

This time, Both Nick and Judy grimaced.

Until now, Nick and Judy had avoided asking the humans how they had died, but now curiosity overcame Judy.

"We died fighting the Soviets." Oster said without a hint of sadness. He said it as if he was reading a cooking recipe. The other humans reacted the same way as if it was an everyday question.

"Who are they? And how though? Did they shoot you with a gun like that one?" she asked pointing at the tank's gun.

"A similar one." said Oster. "The Soviets are communists, people you wouldn't want around here. We were fighting their tanks. There were so many of them Dittmer almost didn't have to aim when he shot, just point in their general direction and he'd hit one. Eventually, two hit our vehicle and sent us sky high, and as you can see severely burning us in the process."

"Oh." Said Judy. "Did your side win?"

"I'm not sure." Oster said thoughtfully. "I hope so though."

"So, are we going to sit around waiting or are we going to find Nunts?" Nick asked changing the pensive mood that had set in.

"You know he doesn't like that nickname, Nick." Said Judy.

"But he ain't here Carrots. What he doesn't know won't hurt him."

"Humph." Said Judy. Sometimes Nick's old attitude from when he was on the streets showed through in varying degrees such as now. It was never anything major, but it still got on Judy's nerves. Nick seemed to sense this, Judy would usually catch a brief but smug smile on him whenever he got her dander up. Like now.

"Let's go find him." She said and before anyone could say anything she walked right up to the tank and hopped up on the front part, deftly avoided the humans sitting there, before climbing up onto the rounder thing on top. There, a hatch had been left open.

The humans, who had been taken completely by surprise, where never the less quick to react. The nearest, Dittmer, reached out and grabbed her foot. Judy let out an "eep!" and tried to kick him, but he was too strong.

"Don't go in there on your own little bunny." Dittmer said.

"Careful Dittmer." Oster cut in.

Judy gave up after another aborted attempted at escape.

"I'll let go if you promise not to go in until we say."

Judy meekly nodded that she wouldn't, and Dittmer let her go. Judy promptly sat down and started rubbing her ankle, a weird expression on her face. Dittmer acted as if nothing had happened.

Nick wanted to hit him for grabbing Judy, but he restrained himself. He was pretty sure he had meant well. Still, it was disconcerting.

"We should get going I guess." He said.

Oster nodded his agreement. "You two won't have much trouble fitting." He laughed. "Thank God you aren't our size, I don't think we'd be able to stuff you in!"

Getting into the tank was a bit awkward. Everyone but Ulex went in through the hatch on the turret, which meant they each went in according to where their stations were from front to back. Judy was in second, taking a cramped spot on the floor. Nick was fourth, taking a spot right below the gun breech.

"Hey, Nick!" Rimsky said when he had gotten in. "I'm putting you in charge of getting rid of spent shells. See that hole there?" he pointed to a hole about the size of a softball in the side of the turret, right above Nick's head.

"Yeah."

"Put the casings through there."

"Ok." Nick said.

" _I could lose my job if I get caught."_ He thought as he looked around at the cramped turret. Then shook his head. Why on earth was he thinking about that right now? The years being married to Judy had caused him to start guessing about the morality of things he might not have even blinked an eye at before.

Then he wondered how he was going to put this in his report. Ugh. Sometimes this job was too much for him.

"You need me to do anything?" Judy asked from her spot near some mean looking giant cartridges. Things neither of them had ever seen outside of books.

"Not right now rabbit, but if we think of something we'll definitely let you know."

Inside, the smell of death was strong, but it was now mixed with another odor. That of diesel and old sweat. Nick wrinkled his nose and covered it with his paw. He could tell Judy could smell it too, but for some reason, it wasn't affecting her as much as him. Lucky.

"Everyone ready?" Oster asked after he had put on his headset.

There were affirmatives all around, and then Vaerst said "Starting the engine!" and seconds later a whine emanated from a comparted in the back, followed quickly by a deep throaty growl punctuated by coughs that eventually disappeared to be replaced by a not that unpleasant constant low rumble. It was accompanied by a sharp increase in the smell of diesel.

Nick watched as Dittmer took a shell from a rack of them beside him. He then opened the breach of the gun and smoothly shoved the shell in, then closed it up. The whole process had taken less than 10 seconds. Dittmer saw him watching.

"If things get busy, you'll get pretty fast yourself, because if you don't you risk getting killed."

Nick flattened his ears. "I uh, I'll remember that." He said.

"See this?" he pointed to another, smaller, gun right next to the big.

"If I start using this, you're going to have to start dancing to avoid them. The casings from this are very hot at first."

"Do I need to pick them up to?"

Dittmer laughed. "No, they'll be too many. Just let them rattle around, its kind of like music after a while. Oh, and that reminds me…" he turned around and opened a small hatch in the turret.

He rummaged around for a second before pulling out a large piece of cotton. He then tore it into four pieces and handed them to Nick and Judy.

"Put these in your ears. Unless you don't mind going deaf."

Nick regarded the two pieces of fluffy plant material the looked at Judy. She had already stuffed them into her ears, leaving little puffs of white against a pinkish background. Nick smiled, before doing the same to his.

"Good?" He vaguely heard Oster ask. He gave him a thumbs up.

"You?" Oster asked pointing at Judy.

Another thumbs up.

"Alright then. Alright Vaerst, let's get this thing moving. The faster we get there the better."

Nick felt a lurch that almost caused him to hit his head against the wall, but his reflexes were too quick.

"Careful there!" Rimsky said laughing.

"Thanks for the warning dude." Nick said sarcastically. Rimsky just laughed again.

"How fast can this thing go?" Nick asked.

"A whopping 34 k/ph on a road. On this ground, 23 max." Vaerst replied.

"Ugh." Said Nick.

"You know how far we got right?" Rimsky asked.

"Yup. Almost exactly 14 kilometers."

"Well then. You had better just settle down and try not to fall asleep."  
Nick chuckled. "Ain't no way I'm going to fall asleep in here pal." He said.

"Good, we'd have to court marshal you anyway for dereliction of duty." Oster said.

Nick smiled. He wasn't quite sure what a court marshal was, but it sounded bad.

The ride to the bridge was uneventful if a little bumpy. It was as if the suspension on the box was nearly non-existent and he was quite grateful when they finally came to a stop. he barely had time to enjoy the stillness when he heard Oster ask;

"Is that an SS officer?"

"Affirmative sir." Rimsky replied. "It looks like he is trying to say something. There's one of those animals beside him too, wearing a red shirt and blue pants."

"I see him."

Oster thought for a second before saying "Keep your sight on the animal. I'm going to see what the SS man wants. If something happens pull the trigger. Got it?"

"Yes Sir!"

Nick watched as Oster undid the hatch and lifted himself until his head was completely out of the vehicle.

"Who are you?" Nick heard him say.

* * *

Barton circled the chopper over the forest canopy below. He had turned off the searchlight so that they could more clearly make out the lights they had spotted amongst the trees. The lights were seemed to be a loose cluster and were constantly moving around in no discernable pattern. Off to the east, he could make out another light, this one a bit fainter and moving determinedly in the direction of the other lights. The hair on the back of his neck prickled, and he knew something was about to go down, but what he had no idea.

All at once, all the lights in the cluster went out, to be replaced with a different set of white lights that Barton could tell were no longer on the ground but were now in the treetops, stationary.

"What on earth was that?" Winston's voice asked over the radio.

"No idea." Barton replied.

"I think something is about to happen." Said Winston a few seconds later. "Look."

Barton followed Winston's pointed finger out to the fainter lights that had been moving towards the cluster. They had stopped in a small clearing in which the dim shape of an old concrete bridge could be seen. Now, Barton could clearly make out the beams of two headlamps. Just behind the lamps, he could barely make out a faint grey outline.

"Is that what I think it is?" he asked.

"Yup! Something is definitely going to happen here." Winston replied. "It'd better start soon though, it's nearly 6:30."

As if on cue, Winston felt a vibration in against his leg. Awkwardly, he fished his phone out from his pocket to see that he had gotten a text from one of the producers back at the studio.

"The folks back at the station are wondering when we will start broadcasting." He said to Barton.

"There's nothing to broadcast yet." Barton told him.

"I know. Let's give it ten more minutes, if nothing happens then we can call it quits."

"Roger that."

Winston hoped against hope that wouldn't happen. If it did, he would be the laughing stock of the station for God knows how long. Not only that but requesting a time slot and not doing anything with it could also lose the company money, which in turn would not end up well for his paycheck and possibly his job.

Turning his attention back to the situation at hand, Barton noticed something standing at the end of the bridge in a pool of light created by the convergence of the two beams of light. After a second, he was able to figure out that it was a creature of some sort dressed in a sharp looking black uniform. Barton had no idea what type of mammal he was. He sure didn't look like anything he had ever seen. Even from 500 feet in a moving helicopter.

Beside the figure in black was a mammal that was much more recognizable. A cat. What kind specifically he couldn't tell, but it was wearing a red t-shirt and blue jeans. He stood just behind and to the left of the figure in black. They failed to spot another figure, just at the edge of the light, who was sitting with its back against a tree. Held there by rope.

For a few minutes, neither Winston nor Barton said anything. Barton slowly circled the clearing and watched as the figure seemed to talk animatedly. His mind drifted back to another time near the beginning of his career when he was following a police chase on the high-speed six-lane Highway 10 going towards the coast. Eventually, the criminal had wrecked while trying to take on off ramp. It had not been pretty, and Barton was pretty sure he had not survived. That experience had been exhilarating, especially since it was his first big assignment. The thrill of the chase was something he would never forget.

He was beginning to zone back in when without any warning a bright flash of orange exploded from the grey box and at the same time the cat disappeared in an explosion of red that slowly drifted out of the light cast by the box. The only thing left of him was the bottom half of his legs laying pointed in opposite directions on the ground. The figure in black immediately and with surprising swiftness dove out of sight into the brush.

"HOLY FREAKING HECK!" Barton yelled over the radio.

"TURN THE SEARCHLIGHT BACK ON!" Winston yelled just as loudly.  
Barton quickly turned it back on and focused it on the box which he could now plainly see was being swarmed by large mammals dressed in the tattered remnants of clothes, some even with hats that looked like fedoras and porkpies. The box flashed again and two of the creatures in front of it fell, minus their heads. A third that had been on the box and standing right at the end of its gun had simply disappeared, leaving behind nothing more than a weird shiny black smudge on the box.

"I'm turning the camera on!" Winston said.

"Roger!" Barton replied and dimmed the searchlight a smidgen.

Winston picked up a microphone from a cubby beside his chair and switched it on. Then he switched a small camera mounted on the choppers control panel like a webcam.

"Good evening Zootopia! This is Winston Hardman with _Zootopia Action News_ and today I am with Henry Barton flying over a desolate forest on the far east side of town."  
Winston pushed a button on a remote control he had in his pocket, switching the camera feed from the one pointing at his face to the one mounted outside the chopper.

"As you can see, we have located the Grey Box, which appears to be under assault from a large group of unidentified mammals."

* * *

Bogo sighed and propped his feet up on the coffee table. It had been a long day filling out the seemingly never-ending forms and calling up city officials asking about grants and charity events and numerous other odds and ends.

Bogo kept his small house meticulously clean. Every week he would dust all major surfaces, especially the TV, and then vacuum the floor. The only place he could mop was the kitchen, which had tile. However, that was about to change because he had a flooring company coming in next week to put hardwood floors down. It was a bit expensive, but he had been saving and planning this for a while and he was not very enthusiastic about carpet, so it was well worth it. Plus, he was going to take a small vacation to the country while they did the renovation since.

Today though had been a bit more hectic than usual. Actually, the whole week had been, yet he had still managed to keep up on most of the chores. Now, he wanted to sit back and relax with one of his favorite drinks, banana milkshake, and a sandwich. Ever since he was a little tike, his mom would make a banana milkshake just a little heavy on the cocoa side and a sandwich when he got home from school. He never could make them taste quite as good as his mom, but he had to admit, he had gotten pretty good at it. Then he'd go sit on the couch and watch something on TV, usually COPS once he got older until he was finished eating. Nowadays he still had the same routine, but now it was after work and sometimes he was too tired to actually finish even a 30-minute episode of something. Today he was going to watch another episode of Criminal Minds. He was only on the third episode, but already his favorite character was Gideon.

He was just sat down with his plate and cup nestled comfortably in his lap, the cold of the milkshake giving him little goosebumps, and was about to hit play when his phone rang. Bogo sighed heavily. He had left his cell phone just out of reach on the coffee table. With a disgruntled look, he dislodged the food from its place and set them on the table. Then reached for his phone. The caller ID said Fangmeyer. Everyone in the department had everyone else's phone number, just in case they needed to get in contact with one another while on duty but didn't want to use the radio which happened quite a bit. But Fangmeyer wasn't on duty right now, and neither was Bogo, so this was a completely unexpected call.

" _Now what the heck could he want?"_ Bogo thought to himself.

He hit answer. "Fangmeyer? You ok?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine chief. I was calling because you need to turn to channel 7. There's somethin' going on over there."

As soon as he heard the words 'channel 7' Bogo new what was up, and a sick feeling began creeping into his stomach. Slowly, with a weird sense of both dread, curiosity, and anger at Winston somehow getting the information early, Bogo reached for the TV remote and changed the channel.

"You still there chief?" Fangmeyer's voice said from the phone.

"Yes yes." Bogo said quickly.

"You see it?"  
"Yes." He said again. he felt dizzy.

On the screen caught in the giant eye of a searchlight was a fight going on between the unmistakable grey box and innumerable mammals that for all intents and purposes looked like they were already dead. They were swarming the box, which every eight seconds, like clockwork, would spout a massive jet of flame and smoke from its revolving gun, obliterating and maiming undead mammals left and right. suddenly he noticed that his phone beeping, indicating another call. He looked at it and saw it was Mayor Lionheart.

"I have to go Fangmeyer, the mayor is calling. Get everyone not on duty to the station now and wait for me to give instructions."

"Yes sir." Fangmeyer said, then hung up.

Bogo accepted the mayor's call.

"Good evening sir." He said.

"Bogo," the mayor interrupted, 'Explain what I'm watching on channel 7."

Bogo swallowed, "Well sir…"

* * *

"Fire at will!" Oster yelled through the headset.

Rimsky didn't need to be told twice. He pulled the trigger as fast as Dittmer could get shells into the breach. He didn't even have to aim, as targets were only a meter or two away, half the time not even that.

After Dittmer had loaded a shell, Nick would have to duck low to the ground to avoid the recoil from the gun. When the breach was opened, and the shell ejected, he would pick it up off the ground and shove it through a hole in the side of the turret.

The smell of gunpowder was intense enough to eradicate the smell of rotting flesh given off by the crew and the noise was deafening. Each shot left a ringing in his ears that made it hard to think, despite the thick cotton wads that had been shoved in. He could only imagine how loud it must be for Judy with her very sensitive rabbit ears.

"Get us onto that bridge Ulex. At least we'll have our flanks protected." He barely heard Oster say.

"Yes sir!" Ulex replied, and immediately he shoved the throttle forward and quickly steered them the last six or so meters to the middle of the bridge, where he locked both tracks, then leaned back in his seat, his skin glistening. There wasn't anything else for him to do but watch what little he could see of the fight through the periscope used for driving when the hatches were closed. Outside, all he could see were black figures. They were covering all over the tank.

Everyone inside could hear them moving about, banging with fists and things they picked up. Suddenly, a series of loud BANGs came from his right. Ulex looked over to see Vaerst holding the grip of the machine gun and staring at him. Unnaturally large amounts of smoke drifted from the receiver.

"They bent the barrel!" he said excitedly. "They bent the barrel! I can't fire anymore!"

Oster cursed. They must have hit it with something. Now they'd have to be extra nimble with the turret in order to cover everything.

A few more tense minutes went by. Dittmer would load, Rimsky would fire, and Nick would eject the spent shell casings. Once he got a hang of it, it was actually a little fun but also tiring. Not only that but after a while, the heat of the casings was beginning to make his paws burn. Judy was sitting quietly at her spot near some ammunition, watching and listening.

But most good things eventually come to an end and the first signs of trouble came when Rimsky could suddenly no longer turn the turret.

Oster noticed the sudden cessation of movement.

"Rimsky, why'd you stop the turret?"

"I, uh, can't move it." Rimsky said, hit the button that would make the turret turn left then right. A high pitched whine came from a small electric motor that turned the turret, but that was all. No movement. "They must have jammed it." He said simply. If the crew could have paled, they would have. As it was, it seemed like the air inside suddenly got a few degrees hotter.

"Try the crank." Oster said.  
Rimsky was on it before being told and was furiously turning the hand crank. It would take 188 turns of the hand crank to turn the turret 360 degrees. Now though, it was all Rimsky could do to get the wheel to turn once. He gave up after three exhausting turns.

"It's no use. I don't know what they did, but I can't turn it."

Judy, seeing her opportunity to be useful piped up with "Let me go check on it!""No!" Nick said quickly. It's too dangerous out there. I won't let you."

Judy didn't object.

"Ulex, get us out of here." Oster said.

The vehicle jerked back about two and a half meters, then it suddenly started slewing around, like when you back a car up and turn the wheel to the right. Ulex let off of the gas.

"Now what?" Oster said exasperatedly.

"Not sure sir." Ulex. "Maybe a track came off?"

"Sir," Rimsky cut in urgently as he peered through the aiming scope. "They've stopped coming from the front. I can't shoot them anymore."

Oster did a 360 in the cupola on the turret and verified what Rimsky had said. Bulky shadow figures surrounded the vehicle, which in its haste to back away had gotten off the bridge and narrowly avoided backing into a ditch when it swung around. He also discovered what had caused Ulex to lose control. The right track had come off. He could see it stretching into the darkness in front of the vehicle. On the bridge, and all around the vehicle were the dark lumps of the bodies of the creatures that had been shot. The ones in the light oozed a black liquid. The front of the tank itself was a mass of black goo.

" _How the hell…"_ Oster thought.

"You're right Ulex, the right track has come off."  
"How'd they manage that?" Rimsky asked.

"Like he would know that?" Nick said, surprising himself.

Everyone in the turret gave Nick a weird look. Nick blanched and mumbled "sorry."

"Right!" said Dittmer. "So, what do we do now?"

Before anyone could answer, loud banging started on the commander's hatch, the one most of them had used to get in.

"They're trying to get in." Oster whispered. "They won't though. There's no way to undo the latching mechanism from the outside."

After while the ones doing the banging came to that conclusion as well and all went quiet.

"Do you think they left?" Rimsky asked quietly?

"They haven't." Judy said. I can still hear them.

If it had been anybody else, Nick would have been surprised that she could still hear much of anything, much less the faint movements of things outside the metal confines of the box. This was Judy Wilde though and Nick had learned never to underestimate her.

Then suddenly the turret gave a groan, and slowly started tilting up from the front.

"Fire the gun Rimsky!" Dittmer screamed.

Rimsky pulled the trigger and the gun roared. Immediately the turret dropped back into place, and they could hear scuffling from outside. A little while later, the gun barrel started elevating on its own. Rimsky fired again, but this time, all that happened was a brief pause, then it continued, gaining speed as it went.

Before they knew it, the front of the turret had risen high enough to allow one of the creatures they had seen outside to stick its head through. Dittmer and Rimsky jerked back in surprise and confusion at the sight of a de-horned and ghastly looking ox of some kind. Oster reacted a little more calmly and pulled out the pistol he wore and quickly empty four or five rounds into it. The ox dropped, its head hanging inside the vehicle leaking a strange viscous black fluid that smelled like damp earth. Hooves that looked like hands appeared around the rim of the turret and accelerated its lifting. Finally, the turret was flipped off the vehicle, making a resounding clang as it fell.

Surrounding them was a plethora of large mammals, some with horns and the remnants of them and wearing the tattered remains of the clothes they were buried in. They were all illuminated by a bright white light that Nick could tell by the sound was coming from a helicopter overhead. The light wavered a bit, and that's when Nick saw another human standing on the box. He had his hands behind his back and looked like he was critiquing someone's golf swing. His countenance matched that of the Used-to-be mammals around him. It looked like he had been struck by lightning, and he was most certainly dead. However, the clothes, or rather uniform, he was wearing was immaculate. His eyes were not black like those of the dead mammals though. Whenever the light from the chopper hit them just right they would give a bright blue glint like they were made of glass, causing Nick to involuntarily shiver.

Beside him stood another human. This one though was different though. For one, it was not dead. his face was a pale white and in perfect health. Yet what really stood out were the white wings that stuck out from his back like those of a falcon.

For a second all was quiet. Then the winged human said:

"Well if it isn't Officer Wilde and Officer Hopps."

Nick's jaw nearly hit the ground.

 **A batman is a servant to an officer. This word was in use long before the Batman we know today came about.**

 **For the life of me, I couldn't find anything about how the turret of the Panzer four was attached. Was it held by gravity or bolted? It's possible that I missed something that said it was bolted, but for the sake of this story I will say that it was held by gravity.**

 **I want to make this a two-part story. I haven't decided if this will be that last chapter of this part though. Either way, come May 27, I won't be able to work on it for nearly a year. Before then, I might be able to get another chapter out, not sure though.**

 **Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and if you have any comments or questions or concerns I would love to hear them. Thanks for reading!**

 **Signing off,**

 **Erwin.**


End file.
